Pasta salad is a staple of summer: easy to cook, open to improvisation, crowd-pleasingly reliable. But cold peanut noodles are what summer really deserves.
Bouncy, creamy and deeply satisfying, they are as painless to throw together as the simplest of pasta salads, yet they pack much more of a punch. And peanut noodles tend to hold up better after several days in the fridge, at the ready when it’s too hot outside to cook.
Such is the case with my recipe for cold peanut ginger noodles, which is savory, spicy and surprising in all the right ways.
The dressing starts with crunchy peanut butter and toasted sesame oil, a combination that builds an earthy depth sharpened by chile crisp, soy sauce and a bright dash of lime juice. There’s also plenty of grated fresh ginger, adding its own inimitable bite. A splash of starchy pasta water turns the whole thing glossy, thinning the sauce just enough so it coats the noodles without sliding off.
Now for the surprise. Scattered throughout are bits of chopped crystallized ginger, little pockets of sweet-hot chewiness to catch you off guard as you eat, impelling your chopsticks or fork to go back for more.
Although cold noodles aren’t quite a salad, this one has plenty of green things in the bowl: cucumbers for their juicy crunch and an entire bunch of scallions for an allium funk. Feel free to vary the vegetables, substituting sliced sugar snap peas, celery or raw zucchini for the cucumbers, and red onion or shallots for the scallions. I like to add cilantro, but that’s purely optional. If you think it tastes like soap, leave it out, or use a little basil or some celery leaves instead.
What turns these cold noodles into a truly satisfying meal is the generous amount of peanut butter that anchors the dish. I stir in a full cup, enough for protein, heft and plushness. Using crunchy peanut butter eliminates the need for extra peanuts, though you could scatter some on top for even more texture. Salted, roasted cashews work nicely here, too.
Perhaps the best argument for peanut noodles as the cold dish of the season is how well they keep. Whip up a batch on Monday and eat it all week long. Just give everything a stir to redistribute the dressing. They’ll taste as good as the day you made them — sometimes even better.
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