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sesame noodles with snow peas and carrots
Chewy noodles, creamy sauce, crunchy veggies—this recipe has it all!
Prepare Ingredients
Gather Cooking Equipment
Carefully add noodles to pot. Cook, stirring often with wooden spoon, until noodles are al dente (tender but still a bit chewy), 2 to 3 minutes for fresh noodes and 10 to 12 minutes for dried noodles. Turn off heat.
Ask an adult to drain noodles in colander. Rinse noodles under cold running water. Drain noodles well.
Meanwhile, in large bowl, whisk peanut butter, lime juice, soy sauce, Chinese sesame paste, honey, garlic, and ginger until smooth. Whisk in hot water until fully incorporated into sauce.
Place snow peas on cutting board. Working with 1 snow pea at a time, snap off tip of snow pea and grasp string. Pull string along flat side of snow pea to remove it. Cut snow peas in half crosswise.
Food for Thought
Use Your Noodle
If you wander the aisles of any grocery store, you’re likely to find dozens of different kinds of noodles in a wide variety of shapes and lengths. You’ll see some sold dried and others fresh. You might spot chewy, stretchy ramen noodles; translucent rice noodles; chunky udon noodles; or extra-long lamian noodles, which are often made and stretched by hand.
This recipe calls for fresh lo mein noodles. These traditional Chinese noodles are long; round; and usually made from wheat flour, water, and salt. Sometimes special kinds of salt are added to the dough to make the noodles chewy and stretchy and give them a slightly yellow color. Since they’re fresh, not dried, look for them in the refrigerated section of the store.
If you can’t find fresh lo mein noodles, your best alternative actually comes from Italy: dried linguine. Linguine noodles—also made from wheat—are close in size to lo mein noodles and have a similar chewy texture when they’re cooked al dente.
Fresh lo mein noodles (top), Dried udon noodles (center), Dried soba noodles (bottom)
Dried ramen noodles (top), Rice vermicelli (bottom)
