Sesame Glazed Noodles – 101 Cookbooks

These chilled sesame noodles have become my summer best friend. Is it hot outside? If so, chances are this dish is on the table. I’m here to share the details before summer is over. Picture a rotating set of long, easy-to-swallow noodles (soba, pici, somen, spaghetti, etc.) tossed in a creamy sesame sauce, topped with 4-5 easy toppings. That’s the basic formula. The noodles are served family-style in a large bowl of ice water. Everyone mixes up their own individual, customized servings. So good, so much fun. It’s definitely a Japanese-inspired concept, and it works well in our home with whatever’s popping up at California farmers markets. I encourage you to incorporate what your family loves and the ingredients that shine at your local markets.

Build a Sesame Glazed Noodle Bowl

Besides cooking the noodles, almost everything else can be made ahead of time. That’s what makes this dish so interesting and what makes it a great weeknight meal. I like to toss a few chopped vegetables (whatever I have on hand – broccoli, asparagus, etc.) into the pasta cooking water after the noodles come out, keeping the cooking in one pot. To summarize, here are the main components of the meal:

• Noodles:Keep a selection of favorites close at hand.
  
• Homemade sesame sauce:make ahead and refrigerate for up to a week. Recipe below. You can also experiment with almond butter and/or peanut butter in place of the tahini or sesame paste for another variation.
• Toppings:I’m going to list over twenty favorite dishes. Choose 4 or 5 of them for your meal.
• Side vegetables: And an easy boost! As mentioned above, grab something that can quickly boil your pasta water after removing the noodles. More ideas below.

Let’s talk about noodle options

I’ve made fantastic versions of this meal with all of the following. Think long and slurp-able on the noodle front. I also check the labels on my noodles to make sure they aren’t savagely salty, to be honest I was caught off guard on several occasions.

• Soba:I love the combination of buckwheat and sesame soba noodles and soba traditionally pairs well with sesame sauces similar to this one. Soba is a go-to dish when I make this recipe and cold soba, in general, is wonderful in the summer.
• Somen:These thin Japanese wheat noodles are a favorite, especially if you have picky eaters who aren’t as receptive to brown noodles.
• Homemade pici:Hand-rolled Italian pasta, if you’re up for something more ambitious, cold pici really make this whole situation something very special.
• Spaghetti: Try any spaghetti you like. I love the Felicetti Farro Monograno Spaghetti for its texture and boosted nutritional profile (not sponsored, just a fan), and the farro plays wonderfully with the creamy sesame sauce. Pictured here.

Sesame Noodle Toppings

Choose 4-5 different toppings. I feel like grated ginger is a must here. So good. And I leave any spicy components out of the base sesame sauce so each person can brighten up their bowls with the level of heat they can handle.

• grated ginger: Peel the ginger with a spoon and grate it with a microplane grater into a small bowl. Key garnish!
• something spicy: Favorites for this recipe include Calabrian chili oil, chili crisp, tobanjan
• roasted seeds and/or nuts:za’atar, traditional gomasio, I also make a red gomasio (photo above) which I will post the recipe for soon, roasted peanuts, etc.
• tomatoes:more precisely, these roasted cherry tomatoes
  
• crunchy pieces:eg fried shallots or crispy jalapeño pepper pieces (WB brought these back from TJ’s a few weeks ago)
• pesto:a small spoonful of pesto in your bowl with the sesame sauce is quite nice.
• lemon zest or chopped preserved lemons
• makrut lime leaves: finely chopped
• kale chips
• chives
• chopped green onions
• grated carrots
• hard-boiled eggs, quartered

And as we enter the end of summer and the beginning of fall, and the weather is still warm enough for cold noodles, but the seasonal ingredients are changing, here are a few more ideas:

• crunchy apple cut into thin slices
• roasted pumpkin seeds
• simple cauliflower
• Roasted Cauliflower: This variation is next on my list, sesame glazed noodles plus roasted cauliflower and some of the other ingredients in this recipe as toppings – mint, arugula, chopped dates, red onion and a spice blend of toasted pine nuts, sesame, cumin, coriander and red pepper flakes. This is going to be good.
  
• Also! For the chilled noodle bowl (above), play around with the different options. Add thin slices of citrus—Meyer lemon, rangpur lime, kishu tangerine, orange, lime are all recent favorites. You can also add fresh herbs or lime leaves or use a cold broth. I have a cold mushroom broth that works really well. The recipe for that is in Super Natural Simple, in the back.

While you’re at it: add a side vegetable!

Broccoli florets, asparagus tops, green beans, wax beans, corn—these are just a few of the veggies I whipped up in a flash after cooking the noodles for the bowls. Boil for about a minute, drain under cold water, and serve on the side. Everyone loves to tossing veggies into their noodle bowls, too.

More Noodle Recipes

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