Spicy Peanut Noodles with Zucchini and Tomatoes

Here’s a super easy and tasty take on spicy peanut noodles — bottled peanut satay sauce or make your own. It’s great either way, and naturally vegan.

The basic components of this dish — ordinary pasta combined with tomatoes and zucchini, get their yum factor (along with an Asian spin) from a luscious peanut sauce.

Truth be told, Thai peanut sauce (sometimes labeled peanut satay) can be more economical to buy (especially store brands) than to make from scratch. But I like to give options, so feel free to choose. Here’s the easy Coconut-Peanut Sauce or Dressing on this site.

Use your noodles: Though this calls for long noodles, feel free to substitute your favorite pasta shape or whatever you’ve got on hand.

Complete the meal: This goes well with a simple tofu or tempeh preparation (Lemon-Pepper Tofu Steaks; Sweet & Savory Tempeh Strips) and a platter of raw vegetables. Or, you can go with a higher protein salad that includes tofu like Cool Cucumber & Kale Salad with Hot & Spicy Tofu.

Recipe adapted from the forthcoming Vegan on a Budget by Nava Atlas (Sterling, Fall 2020). Photos by Hannah Kaminsky, BittersweetBlog.com.

Yield: 6

Spicy Peanut Noodles with Zucchini and Tomatoes

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Here’s a super easy and tasty take on spicy peanut noodles — bottled peanut satay sauce or make your own.

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

Total Time 30 minutes

Ingredients

• 10 to 12 ounces linguine or spaghetti

• 1 medium or 2 small zucchini, sliced

• 2 medium tomatoes, diced

• 2 to 3 scallions, thinly sliced

• 1 cup bottled Thai peanut sauce or Coconut Peanut Sauce (see link in Notes), or more, to taste

• 1 teaspoon hot sauce such as Sriracha, more or less to taste

• Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

• Fresh cilantro leaves for garnish, optional
• 
Peanut halves or chopped peanuts for garnish, optional

Instructions

1. Cook the pasta according to package directions until al dente, then drain.
2. In the meantime, combine the zucchini, tomatoes, and scallions with a small amount of water in a medium skillet. Cover and steam until the zucchini is just tender-crisp and the tomato has softened, about 3 to 4 minutes.
3. Combine the cooked noodles with the peanut sauce in a large serving bowl and stir until evenly coated.
4. Add enough hot sauce to please your palate, but don’t go overboard — you can always pass it around to let everyone to add more to their own taste. Season with salt and pepper.
5. Top each serving with some of the zucchini-tomato mixture. Garnish each serving with cilantro and/or peanuts, if using; pass around any extra peanut sauce that remains, as well.

Notes

Here's our recipe for Coconut-Peanut Sauce.

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