Some pasta dishes lose much of their appeal once they cool, but these spicy peanut noodles were made with the opposite idea in mind. They can be eaten hot after cooking, cold from a packed container, or somewhere between the two.
The Birchwood Pie Project put the recipe together while looking for portable dinners that didn’t depend on having a microwave nearby. Linguine, broccoli, carrots, red pepper, and a spicy peanut sauce create a meat-free meal that can be portioned into containers after cooking.
Peanut Butter Forms the Base of the Sauce
Start the sauce with ⅓ cup peanut butter and ½ cup vegetable or chicken stock.
Soy sauce, rice vinegar, sesame oil, vegetable oil, and two cloves of garlic build the rest of the base. Red pepper flakes and Sriracha control the heat, so both can be adjusted instead of committing the entire batch to one spice level.
Whisk everything together until the peanut butter combines with the liquids and forms a sauce that can coat the noodles and vegetables.
Four Cups of Vegetables Go Into the Noodles
The original version uses about four cups of vegetables: broccoli, two carrots, and half a red pepper.
Cut everything into bite-size pieces, then steam the broccoli and carrots without taking them too far. Leaving them with some bite matters if portions will be saved for later.
The red pepper doesn’t need the same treatment. It can go in without steaming and pick up some heat from the cooked vegetables and pasta.
Break the Linguine in Half Before Cooking
Eight ounces of pasta form the base, with linguine used in the original recipe.
Before cooking it, break the long noodles in half. That small change makes the finished dish easier to eat from a portable container instead of dealing with full-length strands away from the dinner table.
Once the pasta is cooked, combine it with the vegetables while everything is still warm.
Toss the Peanut Sauce With the Warm Noodles
Pour the peanut sauce over the pasta and vegetables, then toss until it coats the noodles and gets distributed through the broccoli, carrots, and pepper.
At this point, the dish can be eaten warm instead of waiting for it to become a cold noodle salad. The same batch can also be portioned into containers for later.
Chicken or shrimp can be added if you want protein, though the original portable version stays with vegetables.
Serve the Same Noodles Hot or Cold
The useful part of the recipe isn’t a special reheating method. There isn’t one.
The peanut sauce works across temperatures, so leftovers don’t depend on returning to the stove or finding a microwave. That makes the noodles useful for packed lunches or dinners when reheating isn’t convenient.
One batch can be dinner while warm and another meal after it cools, without changing the recipe between the two.
Would you eat spicy peanut noodles cold, or do noodles always need to be hot for you?
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