Great warm or cold, Sesame Noodle Salad features springy noodles in a creamy, savory, peanut sauce. These flavorful noodles are better than take-out and can be made ahead as meal prep or to serve as a side dish at your next potluck. 

Last week was absolute chaos at our house – starting with the discovery that our basement was filling with water from what, we discovered, was the pipe running from our kitchen sink and all the way under the basement floor. The cast iron pipe had completely collapsed. If you’ve ever had this happen (and I’m told that many people have), you know that it was a messy, loud, and expensive problem to fix. And we were without a working kitchen sink for almost a week and a half which, around here, is a rather significant problem. 

As we all have to do when life throws us those proverbial lemons, we muddled through. There were more take-out orders than usual, more than one meal of Instant Pot Mac and Cheese, and quite a few big batches of chilled salads we could serve for lunch or dinner. This Sesame Noodle Salad was a clear winner for all five members of our family, as I hope it will be for yours. My kids loved the peanut flavor in the rich sauce, and I loved that it was easy to “sneak” some vegetables in alongside the noodles.

It’s worth noting too, that Sesame Noodle Salad is potluck perfection. If you’re looking for something different to set out and serve, this is unexpected but holds up great to making ahead and serving at any temperature. 

Here’s how to make it. 

Ingredients for Sesame Noodle Salad

• Spaghetti – Spaghetti noodles hold up well to the rich sauce and vegetables here. Soba noodles, ramen noodles, or udon noodles would be great too.
• Red Cabbage – Red cabbage adds a nice color and crunch to the noodles. Green cabbage would work just fine as well.
• Carrots – Like the cabbage, these add great texture, color, and flavor. 
• Sesame Peanut Sauce – This creamy, savory, slightly sweet sauce is made with Asian pantry staples. See below for more details on how it’s made. 
• Green Onions – These add some fresh herb flavor to the finished noodles. Fold them in right before serving. Cilantro would also be great. You can skip this if needed.
• Roasted Peanuts – Buy roasted peanuts and roughly chop them to add great crunch over the finished noodle salad.
• Chicken – Totally optional but if you want to add some protein, try this with shredded cooked chicken. Cubed and seared tofu is great on this too!

How to make Sesame Peanut Sauce 

This savory, slightly sweet Sesame Peanut Sauce is everything. Make it by combining soy sauce, rice vinegar, creamy peanut butter, fresh ginger, white sugar, and garlic in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave it just until the peanut butter melts, about 1 minute. Whisk in sesame oil until the sauce is smooth and creamy. 

If you like your sauce spicy, add some Sriracha or another hot sauce!

This recipe was tested with commercial (JIF) peanut butter. It will work with natural peanut butter, but those often are less sweet and salty than the commercial varieties, so taste your sauce and add some additional sugar or salt, if needed.

How to Finely Shred Cabbage and Carrots

One key feature of this noodle salad is that it gets crunch, flavor, color, and nutrition from shredded cabbage and carrots. To make the salad easy to eat, you have to make sure that the vegetables are shredded finely enough to be about the same width as the cooked spaghetti strands. That means you need to pay close attention to how you shred them.

To easily shred cabbage and carrots, use the shredder attachment on a food processor, a box grater, or a mandolin.

Make-Ahead Sesame Noodle Salad 

This is one of my potluck favorites because it can be easily made ahead. Combine the noodles, grated cabbage and carrots, and sauce. Store in the refrigerator for up to a day. Add the green onions and peanuts right before serving. 

More Variations

• Gluten-Free – Make this gluten-free by using gluten-free noodles (gluten-free spaghetti or soba noodles) and Tamari instead of soy sauce.
• Add Protein – Fold in cooked chicken or seared tofu to make this a complete meal. 
• Change the veggies – Try it with thinly sliced red bell peppers or chopped cucumbers.

Mason Jar Sesame Noodle Salad

This makes a great mason jar meal for meal prep, to pack for lunches, or just to easily serve in individual portions. Pack the jars with dressing on the bottom, then noodles, and vegetables on top. Store the peanuts on the side so they stay crunchy and just add them to the salad when you’re ready to eat it.

More Potluck Favorites

Caprese Skewers

Nectarine, Arugula and Crispy Pancetta Summer Salad

Italian Tortellini Pasta Salad

Slow-Cooker Brown Sugar Baked Beans