Thai Style Peanut Butter Noodles

Please excuse the messy bowl. I was in a hurry to eat these...

I love peanut butter. Have I mentioned that before? I LOVE PEANUT BUTTER. Thankfully, my boys do as well. It was the only source of protein I could get down my son for the longest time. We’ve had more than our fair share of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in the past year, that is for sure. But sometimes, I think peanut butter gets stuck in the “sweets” category. I know it’s stuck there for my husband. He is not a fan of this dish. Like, not at all. Won’t touch it. Ever again. But the little bug and me? Oh, we can devour this stuff. I love peanut butter used in savory applications. It goes SO WELL with Thai flavors. And put it on noodles, my other favorite type of food? Mm. Mm-mm.

This is pretty much what I do for this dish. I have a hard time paying attention to quantity when I play with a recipe. I usually end up adjusting things a couple of times before I’m satisfied, so you may need to play around with this one until it tastes good to you. Just remember – go easy on the sugar! This is supposed to be mostly savory.

Thai Style Peanut Butter Noodles

Adapted from Ellie Krieger’s The Food You Crave

½ cup peanut butter (creamy or chunky)

½ cup chicken broth

3+ tbsp low sodium soy sauce (depending on your taste buds)

3 tbsp lime juice

2 tsp brown sugar

1 clove minced garlic (or ¼ tsp garlic powder)

1 tbsp minced fresh ginger (or ¼ - ½ tsp ground ginger)

2 tbsp chili sauce (see note below)

1 ½ tbsp toasted sesame oil

1 scallion, chopped

Combine all ingredients into a small bowl (I usually do a cereal bowl, honestly). Mix well. If the peanut butter is not mixing with the other ingredients, microwave on high for 15-20 seconds, then stir vigorously. Serve over cooked whole wheat pasta – I like angel hair, myself.

*This is super quick and easy, and you probably have most of this stuff already. The toasted sesame oil is great for Asian dishes, so if you don’t have it already, go get some! Totally worth it. And the toasted has such a nice flavor. It’s hard to find just straight up sesame oil that doesn’t have canola oil mixed in with it, so just go ahead and buy the toasted sesame oil. Be careful, though – it does not have a high smoke point like vegetable or canola oil, so NEVER try to stir fry or cook with it over anything higher than low heat. Trust me. Also, the chili sauce might not be something you have. The brand I buy is cheapest at Whole Foods; it’s called “Roland Ginger Chili Sauce” and it has a yellowish label with skinny green lizardy dragons on it. Good stuff, again with pretty much any Asian dish.

Just to make it worth your while to go out and buy the toasted sesame oil, I’ll post a couple more recipes that use it soon J