Soba Noodles With Peanut Sauce

This is a recipe that I’ve mentioned – and posted photos of – before. I found it in Fitness Magazine years ago – in fact, I was living on PEI at the time, so that’s more than 10 years ago now.

The last time I searched for it on the Fitness Magazine website I couldn’t find it, so I decided to post it here.

Here is the recipe as it was printed in Fitness Magazine.

Soba Noodles With Peanut Sauce

Prep time: 15 minutes

Servings: 4

One 8.8 oz pkg Soba noodles

Spicy Peanut Sauce:

- 3 tbsp fresh lemon juice

- 2 1/2 tbsp brown sugar

- 2 tbsp low-sodium soy sauce

- 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

- 1 clove garlic, minced

- 1/8 tsp salt

- 2 tbsp creamy peanut butter

One 8-oz pkg frozen sugar snap peas

1 small red bell pepper, thinly sliced

1/2 cup chopped scallions

1/2 cup fresh basil or mint

Cook Soba noodles in boiling water as directed (about 6-8 minutes). Meanwhile, make Spicy Peanut Sauce:

In a small saucepan, combine lemon juice, brown sugar, soy sauce, red pepper flakes, garlic and salt. Bring to a boil, stirring frequently. Remove from heat; whisk in peanut butter stirring until smooth, and set aside.

Two minutes before noodles are done, add snap peas. Continue to boil until noodles are just cooked. Drain noodles and peas and transfer to a large serving bowl. Add bell peppers, scallions and basil. Pour sauce over noodles and toss to coat.

* * * * *

Of course, being incapable of sticking to a recipe as it is written, I like to do things a bit differently. I usually cook less noodles and stir-fry a bunch of veggies. I’ll use whatever veggies I have on hand – in fact, I have made it with red bell pepper and red onion if that’s all I have and it still came out great.

If making the recipe this way, you’ll want to rinse your soba noodles with cold water after cooking to keep them from sticking together. Then add them to the pan with your stir fried veggies and toss it all together – the easiest way is to us a big spoon and one of those spaghetti servers. Then add the sauce and toss to coat.

I have used fresh cilantro in place of the basil/mint, or if I have no fresh herbs, I have added some dried basil to the sauce.

I have also used fresh chilis in place of dried, and added fresh ginger (as shown in the photo above).