Peanut Noodles with Cabbage
These healthy peanut noodles with crunchy purple cabbage and fresh basil are so delicious, you may bust into song when you see them! They are loaded with fresh veggies and have a dreamy lightly sweet and savory ginger peanut sauce that makes them irresistible.
Table of contents
Why We Love This Peanut Noodles with Cabbage
If you love peanut noodles then this peanut noodles with cabbage recipe will wow you for sure! It’s made with a creamy gingery peanut sauce and is tossed with a combination of carrots, scallions and purple cabbage! It’s a crowd-pleasing vegetarian recipe for a potluck or family-friendly get-together.
It can also be made ahead and served chilled for dinners with family. The peanut dressing is always a hit! Plus the addition of chopped cabbage makes it a healthier choice than traditional peanut noodles.
Recipe Highlights
- The full recipe for these healthy peanut noodles comes together in only 25 minutes!
- It’s a great make-ahead recipe since you can eat it cold or hot.
- Each serving has 13 grams of protein and only 345 calories.
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Key Ingredients For This Recipe
- Penne Pasta: We used penne pasta instead of linguini or long noodles but feel free to use your favorite!
- Peanut Butter: We used smooth no-stir peanut butter but you can use whichever you want. Be mindful of the ingredients, though. You want to get peanut butter that only has peanuts and salt (if desired) listed as the ingredients.
- Maple Syrup: When buying the ingredients for these peanut noodles, make sure to grab pure maple syrup and not the artificially flavored stuff. Real maple syrup contains micronutrients and is a natural sweetener, whereas artificial maple syrup is basically just flavored corn syrup.
- Pantry Staples: Tamari or soy sauce, white vinegar, hot sauce such as Sriracha
- Salt
- Ginger: I know not everyone keeps fresh ginger in their house, but it’s definitely worth using in this easy recipe. The fresh ginger adds the perfect punch of flavor in this recipe without overshadowing the peanut sauce. Just make sure to finely mince the ginger, otherwise, you’ll bite down on a big chunk of the stuff.
- Red Cabbage: Cabbage is an amazing vegetable to add to salads. It’s packed with nutrients and ads a great crunch to the salad!
- Other Vegetables: Garlic, scallions and carrots
- Basil
- Unsalted Peanuts: You could also get salted peanuts if desired or use unsalted cashews instead!
Step-by-Step Instructions to Make These Healthy Peanut Noodles
Step 1: Cook pasta
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Cook the pasta according to the package instructions. You don’t want to overcook the pasta, as it’ll soak up the peanut sauce once you mix everything together. If you cook the pasta too much, it’ll only get mushier after you add in the sauce. You want slightly firm peanut noodles that can hold their own against all those veggies. Reserve ½ cup pasta cooking water, then drain the pasta and run cold running water over it.
Step 2: Make peanut sauce
Whisk together the peanut butter and the hot pasta water in a large bowl. Add the maple syrup, tamari, vinegar, garlic, hot sauce, ginger and salt.
Step 3: Toss Peanut Noodles with Cabbage and Sauce
Add the pasta and toss to coat, then add cabbage, scallions, carrots, basil and peanuts and toss to coat again. Taste and adjust salt if desired just before serving. Serve immediately or chill.
FAQs and Expert Tips
Store these healthy peanut noodles in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days.
Since peanut noodles taste GREAT cold, they’re an excellent make-ahead recipe. You could either assemble the whole recipe and store in the fridge until ready to eat, or you can make the peanut sauce up to a week ahead and store in the fridge until ready to assemble the remaining parts of the recipe.
Pasta water is an often overlooked ingredient, but it’s really useful in this peanut noodles recipe. We’ve used the hot pasta water to thin out the peanut butter and make the peanut sauce. The starchy pasta water helps the peanut sauce thicken up nicely and prevents you from wasting anything in this recipe.
As mentioned above, you can swap out penne for your favorite type of pasta. You can also mix it up by adding sliced bell peppers, cashews, or even mixing in cubed leftover chicken for extra protein! I also love sprinkling sesame seeds on top as well.
Additional Easy Recipes to Try
- Pasta with Corn and Smoked Mozzarella: While corn is in season, try this recipe made with fresh mozzarella. It is cheesy and garlicky and so delish!
- Healthy Greek Yogurt Pasta Salad with Ham and Peas is a good one for summer pot lucks and barbecues. Or my Garden Macaroni Salad with Cheese is another creamy Greek Yogurt recipe.
- Minestrone Soup has macaroni in it and I have a tip to prevent it from getting mushy in the soup!
- 20-Minute Cheese Tortellini and Veggies: This is a super easy summer meal!
- Butternut Squash Mac and Cheese: A fall comfort food dinner or to add to Thanksgiving.
At Healthy Seasonal Recipes, we specialize in cooking with fresh veggies and creating weeknight meals. Sign up HERE to get more produce-forward dinner ideas for FREE! If you make this recipe, please come back and leave a star rating and review. I would love to hear what you thought! Happy Cooking! ~Katie
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Peanut Noodles with Cabbage Recipe
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: 14 cups 1x
Description
Creamy peanut sauce, sweetened with a little maple syrup and flavored with ginger is tossed with cooked pasta, basil and a colorful combination of carrots, scallions and purple cabbage. It’s a crowd-pleasing vegetarian recipe for a potluck or family-friendly get together.
Ingredients
- 1 16–ounce box penne pasta
- 1/2 cup smooth no-stir peanut butter
- 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup, dark or amber
- 2 tablespoons tamari or soy sauce
- 4 teaspoons white vinegar
- 1 clove garlic, finely grated
- 1 to 2 teaspoons hot sauce such as Sriracha, to taste
- 1 1/2 teaspoon finely grated ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste
- 2 cups chopped red cabbage
- 1 cup chopped scallions
- 1 cup finely chopped carrots
- 1/2 cup chopped basil
- 1/2 cup chopped roasted unsalted peanuts
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Cook pasta according to package instructions. Reserve ½ cup pasta cooking water. Drain pasta and run cold running water over it.
- Whisk peanut butter and the hot pasta water in a large bowl. Add maple syrup, tamari, vinegar, garlic, hot sauce, ginger and salt. Add the pasta and toss to coat. Add cabbage, scallions, carrots, basil and peanuts and toss to coat. Taste and adjust salt if desired just before serving. Serve immediately or chill.
Notes
Cooking Tip: Pasta water is an often overlooked ingredient, but it’s really useful in this peanut noodles recipe. We’ve used the hot pasta water to thin out the peanut butter and make the peanut sauce. The starchy pasta water helps the peanut sauce thicken up nicely and prevents you from wasting anything in this recipe.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Category: Main Course
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Thai
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1.5 cups
- Calories: 345
- Sugar: 9 g
- Sodium: 400 mg
- Fat: 11 g
- Saturated Fat: 2 g
- Carbohydrates: 50 g
- Fiber: 5 g
- Protein: 13 g
Delish! I love how you incorporate more veggies in a way that is so flavorful. And that you are not scared of yummy spices (siracha and ginger).
The peanut sauce is fabulous! Next time I’ll use less penne to make the sauciness just right for me.
Otherwise, I suggest making the recipe exactly as written. Friends were visiting, helping me with house projects, and it was great to have this made-ahead and all ready for a delicious satisfying lunch. I had gomashio on hand which we sprinkled on top along with the peanuts, and that made it next-level.
When you make ahead, I def agree that making a little more sauce is helpful. The pasta soaks it up as it sits.
Does this work when almond butter and almonds are substituted for peanuts? Can’t see where this question has been asked yet.
That should work as long as the almond butter is not too stiff.
So good and quick for Tuesday dinner. I didn’t have peanut butter so used peanut powder and it worked just fine. Love the no need to cook anything but the noodles. Thanks for this treat!
Thank you, Kate. Glad you enjoyed it!
So easy and so flavorful. Love that it is vegetarian. Love that the chopped vegetables get inside of the penne pasta. YUM. Thank you.
These noodles were delicious, and it was hard to stop eating them last night! I sent a bowl to a couple neighbors and they loved them too. I used about 3/4 the box of angel hair to up the sauce to noodle ratio (smile emoji) and added some rotisserie chicken to keep my husband happy, and he sure was. Thanks for another great recipe!
Oh! I love the idea of using Angel Hair with this combo! Wow! Thank you Laurie!
The instructions say to “add sesame seeds”. There are no sesame seeds listed in the ingredients.
I have no idea why that was in there. I took it out. Thanks!
We loved the punch of ginger!
The ginger is my fave too!
These flavors are killer! I loved every bite!!!
I am psyched you love this recipe Liz. Have a great day!
These are very gingery noodles, and I love that about them! Thanks for the great recipe. One of my favorites.
So glad you love it too!
I stir-fried all the veggies and seasonings in a pot, then added the pasta water, spaghettini broken in half, cooked al dente, peanut butter, and tossed. So gooooood! Thanks for the inspiration!
I am so psyched to hear you like the recipe Karen. Thanks for coming back to review.
Wow! That looks yummy! I didn’t realize how many “O” Organic products there are! I’ll have to be on the lookout!
Hi Cynthia. Thank you! I was surprised about that too. Have a great weekend.