This is a great recipe for a) getting dinner on the table in 20 minutes or less b) using up all the vegetables in your refrigerator before they go bad (this is me every week!) and/or c) making a meatless dinner that still satisfies.
There are a lot of recipes for peanut butter noodles (for all the reasons listed above) but I like how clean and fresh this one tastes. Feel free to adapt to your wishes: add whatever vegetables you want, use another nut butter if you need to (let me know how it goes if you do), cook up gluten-free noddles instead of spaghetti or add a bit of heat with a pinch of red pepper flakes. This recipe is pretty hard to mess up!
Noodles with Peanut Butter Lime Sauce
3/4 pound spaghetti, or pasta of your choice
2 to 4 cups broccoli florets
2 to 4 cups bell pepper slices
1/2 cup natural creamy peanut butter
1/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce
1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 scallion, cut into pieces
3/4 inch fresh ginger, finely grated
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 cup shelled unsalted peanuts
Cook the pasta in a large pot of water according to the directions on the package. While the pasta is cooking put the broccoli in a steamer basket over a large pot of boiling water and steam it for 3 minutes. Add bell pepper slices and steam for 2 minutes more.
Toast the peanuts in a dry pan over a medium heat until they become fragrant, about 3 minutes. Set them aside to cool. Make the sauce by pureeing the peanut butter, soy sauce, water, vinegar, lime juice, scallion, ginger and sugar in a food processor or blender until smooth.
Toss the warm pasta with 3/4 cup of the peanut sauce. In a separate bowl, toss steamed vegetables with remaining sauce. Mix the pasta and the vegetables together. Coarsely chop the peanuts, sprinkle them on top and serve. Enjoy!
Adapted from a recipe by Ellie Kreiger