Vegan Thai Peanut Noodle Salad

Thai peanut noodle salad is an easy weeknight meal that is ready in under 30 minutes. The Thai-inspired vegan peanut sauce is the perfect addition to this elegant noodle recipe.

This Thai Peanut Noodle Salad?  Dang, it's good.  It's easy to get in a rut of eating rice and roasted veggies for every meal when you eat mostly vegetables.  But this knocked me right out of that rut.

Let's digress for a moment.  I haven't shared much of my food journey with you guys yet, and I plan to do a separate post about that soon.  But, part of that story involves an eating disorder that ruled my life for years.  During that time, I would fantasize about eating peanut butter and not feeling horrible about it afterward.  That fantasy has come true.  I eat peanut butter every single day.  Sometimes twice in a day.  And I even put it on my noodles and in chickpea wraps.  Dream come true.

I'm not making light of this difficult period in my life, but truly rejoicing in the freedom that a plant-based diet has blessed me with.  I was reflecting this morning about the fact that I haven't looked at a nutrition label in years.  I haven't even given calories a thought since I started eating a mostly whole food plant-based diet.  Why?  First, whole foods (fruits and vegetables) generally don't have nutrition labels.  Second, because eating whole foods is so good for your body, you can generally eat as much unprocessed food as you want without gaining weight. This includes peanut butter.

Speaking of peanut butter, let's get back to this Thai peanut noodle salad.

How to make Thai Peanut Noodle Salad

Thai peanut noodle salad is not a new idea.  There are variations of this floating all over the web, and for very good reasons.  This salad is a perfect addition to your weeknight meal rotation since it is quick to make, full of nutrition and packed with flavor.  This salad can be eaten cold or hot and easily doubles if you want to make extra for lunch tomorrow.  Which you should.

Start by boiling your rice noodles.  While the noodles are cooking, heat a few tablespoons of water in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the pepper and carrots and sauté for 4-5 minutes, until softened slightly, adding more water as necessary to prevent sticking. Add the green onion and cook for one minute. Turn off the heat.

Next, make the sauce: combine all ingredients for the peanut dressing in a small bowl. Whisk until smooth.   Add more water as necessary to create a smooth, pourable sauce.  (Sidenote: this sauce is so great on things besides noodles too, including Chickpea Lettuce Wraps.) Add the noodles and the peanut dressing to the pan with the veggies and stir to thoroughly coat the noodles.  Sprinkle with peanuts and cilantro if desired.

Done!  Seriously it is that simple.

Substitutions

• The vegetables I give in the recipe are merely suggestions.  You can use any vegetables you have in your fridge that need to be used up.  Cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower would all be welcome additions to this salad.  Serve this on a bed of greens to add even more veggies to your meal.
• You can easily make this salad nut-free by subbing tahini for the peanut butter and sesame seeds for the peanuts.  If you have a nut and sesame allergy, sunflower butter, and sunflower seeds are a good substitution.
• For a grain-free option swap the noodles for zucchini noodles.

And now you have a Thai salad that everyone can eat!  Hooray! Enjoy!

If you enjoyed this recipe, you may also like:

Tofu Pad Thai
Thai Coconut Soup
Jerk Baked Tofu