Name: Quick and Easy Sesame Noodles
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 15 min
Yield: 6
Cuisine: Chinese
Ingredients: 1 pound spaghetti*; 1 medium shallot, minced; 2 cloves garlic, minced; 1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger; 3 tablespoons seasoned rice vinegar; 1/4 cup crunchy natural peanut butter; 3 tablespoons good soy sauce; 2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil; 1/2 teaspoon sriracha; 2 tablespoons sesame seeds; 3 scallions, white and light green parts thinly sliced

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This easy sesame noodles recipe is packed with flavor, quicker than takeout and better for you, too. Vegan. Add tofu, shrimp, chicken or beef if you like.

Why we love this recipe

For quick dinners involving a pound of pasta, I sort of idiotically gravitate toward Italian flavors about 95% percent of the time. No offense to Italian flavors — they’re wonderful, obviously. BUT. How about shaking it up a little once in a while, right? Just as easy, just as delicious, and really great for a change: this easy sesame noodles recipe. It’s quicker than take-out, honestly. And fresher tasting, not to mention better for your bod.

making sauce for sesame noodles in a large mixing bowl: adding shallot, garlic, ginger, rice vinegar, and peanut butter

Ingredients for sesame noodles

Here’s what you’ll need to make this recipe:

Minced shallot
Minced garlic
Minced fresh ginger
Seasoned rice vinegar (this is the kind with a little bit of sugar and salt added to it)
Crunchy peanut butter
Lower-sodium soy sauce
Toasted sesame oil
Sriracha
Spaghetti or Chinese egg noodles
Sesame seeds
Scallions

adding soy sauce, toasted sesame oil, sriracha, pasta cooking water, and spaghetti to the bowl

How to make sesame noodles

Here’s how to make this easy recipe in about 15 minutes. You can watch all the steps in action in the video that accompanies this post.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.
Cook the spaghetti or egg noodles until al dente. Reserve 1/2 cup of the cooking water before draining.
Meanwhile, place the minced shallot, garlic and ginger into a large mixing bowl (big enough to accommodate a pound of noodles) and stir in the rice vinegar. Let it sit for five minutes. This takes some of the bite out of the raw shallot and garlic, mellowing their flavor a bit.
Then whisk in the peanut butter, soy sauce, sesame oil, and sriracha. Whisk in some pasta water — probably 1/4 cup total depending upon the thickness of your peanut butter — until the sauce is nice and loose. You’re looking for a consistency that will coat the noodles and cling to them nicely without being gloppy.
In a small, dry pan, toast the sesame seeds over low heat, stirring a few times, until they’re fragrant and lightly browned.
As soon as you drain the pasta, add it to the bowl with the sauce and toss to coat well.
Stir in the scallions and sesame seeds and serve warm or at room temperature.

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a bowl of noodles with chopsticks on a wood background

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Yield: 6