Sesame Peanut Noodle Salad

Made with a delicious sesame peanut sauce, this sesame peanut noodle salad is best served cold! It’s a cooked ramen noodle salad with crunchy cabbage, peanuts, and carrots.

Since the kids started back in school in January, we haven’t had a short week yet – until now. The first half of the school year seemed to have a million short weeks, so these long weeks this year have seemed…LONG. Anyway, we have a 4 day weekend starting tomorrow and I am READY for it!

On to the salad. I made this sesame peanut noodle salad a few times last summer when it was too hot to cook, and everyone loved it. I did have to tone down the spice a bit for the kids, and leave out the green onions (picky) but other than that they thought it was great!

It’s super simple to put together, and you can even make it completely gluten free for those in your life that might prefer that. I’ll get into the changes for that down below!

How do you make this cooked ramen noodle salad?

As you might have guessed, this salad is made with cooked ramen noodles. If you’re not worried about gluten, you can use the instant ramen noodle packages and just discard the seasoning, or keep it for later if you want to make my CRUNCHY ramen noodle salad.

If you’d like to keep things gluten free, use ramen noodles made with rice! My go-to brand which you can usually get at Costco, is Lotus Foods. That’s actually what I used here for this recipe.

Prepare the rest of the ingredients by dicing up all of the veggies:

• green cabbage
• julienned carrots (or shredded)
• celery

Side note: I use my y-peeler to do a quick julienne of my carrots. This is the one I use!

Whichever noodles you choose to use, cook them until al dente (still a little firm) then quickly drain the water and rinse the noodles thoroughly under cold water.

While the noodles are cooking, whisk together all of the ingredients for the sauce:

• tamari sauce
• sesame oil
• rice vinegar
• natural peanut butter
• maple syrup
• ginger
• garlic
• sambal oelek (chili sauce)

Once the noodles have cooked and cooled, combine them with the veggies and the sauce.

Toss everything together until thoroughly combined, then top with diced green onions, peanuts and sesame seeds!

Serve the salad immediately or keep it in the fridge until you’re ready to eat.

Does this sesame peanut noodle salad keep well?

Yes! This salad is great for keeping in the fridge, which makes it great for meal prep or just a make ahead dish. The flavors will continue to mingle together as the salad sits. Leave the garnishes (peanuts, green onions) until just before serving!

Is this a vegan dish?

Yes! This salad is vegan, vegetarian and gluten free. This makes it a great option if you’re looking for a tasty dish that everyone can enjoy, even with some dietary restrictions.

If you are not a big fan of peanut butter, you could also substitute it for almond butter or another nut butter, such as cashew butter.

You can also increase the spice by adding more chili sauce to the dressing. It already has quite the kick of flavor, so be sparing if you are adding more!

If you like this dish I think you’ll love these other recipes!

• Instant Pot sesame chicken
• turkey ramen soup
• coconut curry noodle bowl

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