Thai-Inspired Noodle Salad

This is a phenomenal recipe - the sauce is just great with all the right elements to make it interesting and delicious. I didn't have a lime on hand so I just used 2 tbsp of lime juice, and I squeezed a few squirts of sriracha instead of the red pepper flakes. I omitted peanuts because they aren't school-friendly, used spaghetti instead of soba and added sliced green onions, cooked edamame and some fried eggs for protein.

8.29.16 I added some red bell pepper slices, frozen petite peas, and some sliced green onions to give this a bit more eye appeal. I didn’t have soba noodles on hand, so I substituted thick spaghetti. Love recipes like this where you can knock out side dishes early in the day to make evening meal preparation easier. This will be served tonight with grilled smoked chops and grilled fresh pineapple slices for an easy, hot summer day dinner.

Pretty darn good and so easy too! I added green onion, edamame, bell peppers and some teriyaki chicken and it turned out great! I only omitted the lime juice and zest because I felt like it was tart enough without it.

2-26-2016 ~One of Hubs' favorite dishes to order here in Naples is a tuna tataki which is served with a cold noodle salad much like this, which he even remarked upon. It's no wonder, then, that this got a "This is excellent" out of him. You can taste each of the ingredients, yet they're all subtle and do end up blended and balanced in flavor. For a little green, I added chopped green onion and julienned cucumber, both nice additions. I also gave it a dribble of oil, which after I tasted it was more to my liking.

This recipe is perfect just the way it is. I don't think the zest or the lime juice needed to be adjusted and I had a rather large lime. Whole foods has 100% whole buckwheat Soba noodles in 8 oz. bags and I used two of those. Since I like very robust flavors and after reading many reviewer comments, here is what I added: small chopped pieces of 1/2 of a large red bell pepper, 3/4 cup edamame, 3 green scallions, 8 sliced snow peas, 1 Tbsp. toasted sesame seeds, 2 additional cloves of garlic, 1 tsp. crushed ginger, 1 whole fresh jalapeno pepper diced very small seeds and all. When it came to the sesame oil, I used 1 Tbsp. sesame and 1/2 Tbsp. hot chili oil. I forgot my nuts, but honestly after eating it, I didn't see how it was going to enhance my particular concoction. I had every intention and purchased cashews for the purpose. Oh well. This is a great salad as is or with your adds. I think the dressing amount is spot on as my Soba noodles and all the ingredients get completely coated. (I'm eating it as I write this.) Oh, I forgot, I did sub honey for the brown sugar as I was out. The bonus of this salad is that it's super healthy as well, especially if you are using the 100% buckwheat Soba noodles. Thanks Christiana Heins for posting it!