Meatless Tuesday - Noodles & Vegetables with Peanut Sauce

I was too busy organizing and cleaning yesterday that I never got around to writing my Roses n' Thorns or Meatless Monday recipe. Ah well...

Since I don't feel like getting into my roses n' thorns right now (I may even let it go for another week...), here's my Meatless Day After Monday recipe. It's called Noodles and Vegetables with Peanut Sauce from The Compassionate Cook (or "Please Don't Eat the Animals") Vegetarian Cookbook. A well-loved second hand copy given to me a couple Christmases ago by my friend Janet.

This is a pretty flexi recipe ingredients-wise, and can also be eaten warm or cold. I made this on Sunday, but I replaced the onions with baby bok choi and reduced the amount of noodles in favour of adding in a faux chicken breast. I also only used about a tablespoon or two of olive oil instead of the 1/4 cup of roasted sesame oil, because I wanted to cut down on the phat. I've made this dish both ways, and since it tastes awesome with or without all that extra oil, I figure why not go without? Yum, yum!

Noodles and Vegetables with Peanut Sauce

Serves 3 to 4

Prep time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

1 pound spaghetti noodles

1/2 cup peanuts

2 cloves garlic

2 tablespoons soy sauce or tamari

4 teaspoons distilled white vinegar

1 tablespoon sugar

1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/2 cup water

2 medium carrots, julienned

1/2 pound (1 cup) snowpeas, sliced

1/4 cup roasted sesame oil

2 green onions, chopped

1 cucumber, peeled, seeded, and julienned

Directions: 

1. Cook the spaghetti according to package directions. 

2. In a blender, combine the peanuts, garlic, soy sauce, vinegar, sugar, cayenne pepper, and water. Blend until smooth and set aside.

3. Steam the carrots and snowpeas until tender crisp, about 7 minutes, and set aside. (Since I was adding a faux chicken breast, this time I just did a light stir fry with the breast n' veggies instead of steaming.)

4. Rinse the spaghetti with cold water and drain thoroughly. Pour into a large mixing bowl. Toss with the sesame oil. 

5. Add the peanut sauce, carrots n' snowpeas and toss. Just before serving, top with green onions and cucumber.