Lunch-time Delight: Thai Noodle Salad

My second attempt at creating a healthy and delicious lunch for myself. The other night my family had spaghetti with pasta sauce and like always... we ended up with leftover pasta, but not enough pasta sauce to go with it! What were we to do? My dad usually stir-fries the leftover noodles with veggies, chicken, soy sauce and chili... but this time I wanted to be extra creative and make up a recipe using the spaghetti noodles. And here's my recipe for Thai Noodle Salad...

Thai Noodle Salad With Peanut Sauce

Ingredients:

- 350g spaghetti (cook as directed)

- 1/4 cup sesame seeds

- 1/4 plus 2 tbsp natural peanut butter

- 1/4 cup sesame oil

- 1/3 cup roasted peanuts/cashews (or other nuts)

- 1/3 cup low-sodium soy sauce

- 1 tbsp rice wine vinegar

- 1 tbsp sherry

- 2 garlic cloves

- 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes

- 3/4 cup coconut milk

- 1 tbsp thai red curry paste

- 1 tsp sambal olek

- 2 tbsp brown sugar

Method:

1. in a food processor, combine the peanut butter, sesame oil, peanuts, soy sauce, vinegar, sherry, garlic and red pepper flakes. Process to puree.

2. Mix the curry paste, sambal and brown sugar into the coconut milk, until well combined.

3. Add the coconut mixture to the peanut mixture, and process to mix.

4. Stir in half of the sesame seeds.

Assembly:

1. Drain noodles and place them in a bowl.

2. Add in the peanut/coconut sauce and toss the noodles.

3. Place serving sizes into individual bowls and sprinkle the noodles with remaining sesame seeds. Serve noodles garnished with your choice of chopped green onions, grated carrot, cilantro, cucumber or all of the above.

NOTE: This recipe can be served warm or cold. If preparing the recipe ahead of time, you must keep the noodles and sauce stored separately; combine the two just before serving... otherwise the noodles will absorb all of the sauce and get soggy.