Happy Peanut Butter Day!

It was a strange and wonderful coincidence that I found out the it is peanut butter day about 5 minutes ago after making dinner with peanut butter!

Photo from MenuPages

This is not a Low Carbon recipe, considering it used packaged and non-seasonal ingredients, however it is vegan, healthy and delicious. Matt and I visited H-Mart which is a huge asian supermarket in Naperville and I was literally like a kid in a candy store. So many interesting and exotic things to look at. Anyways, that was the inspiration for cooking an asian-themed dinner.

Pad Thai Soba Noodles with Spicy Peanut Sauce
Adapted from Healthy Happy Life

Ingredients:
8 oz of Soba (buckwheat) noodles

Boiling Broth
5 c water
1/4 c soy sauce
1 T miso
2 T ume plum vinegar
1 t hot chili oil
zest and juice from 1/2 an orange
3 T maple syrup
1 T sesame seeds

Steamed Veggies

head of broccoli, cut into bite-sized pieces

any other veggies you want (I used diced red peppers)

Toss-Ins
a handful bean sprouts
1 T sesame oil
1 lime, juiced
juice from half of an orange

1 orange, peeled and diced

1/4 c peanuts or raw cashews, chopped
1/4 c sesame seeds
4 scallions, chopped thin
1" ginger, grated
another splash of ume plum vinegar

Spicy Peanut Sauce
2/3 cups of leftover noodle broth
squeeze of lime juice
1/4 c peanut butter (or other nut butter)
3 T maple syrup
2 t hot chili oil

Garnish

1/4 c parsley
1 lime, cut into wedges

Directions:

Bring boiling broth ingredients to a boil.

Add in noodles and cook according to directions (mine were for 4 minutes).
Pour noodles into a colander to separate from broth, reserving broth.

Put cut veggies into a sauce pan and add an inch of water.

Cover, bring water to a boil and steam veggies until tender, about 5 minutes.

Strain and add veggies to noodles.

Add all toss-ins ingredients to noodles and veggies.

Bring peanut sauce ingredients to a simmer in a small sauce pan.

Stir continuously until reduced to a thick sauce.

Sauce can be adjusted to personal preferences: adding ginger, chillies, garlic, almond milk...

Pour sauce over noodle mixture and toss well.

Garnish and serve!

Creamy, salty, spicy, filling, delicious.

Happy Peanut Butter Day!