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Cold Noodles with Tempeh

A cold noodle salad with tempeh croutons, peanut‑lime dressing, mung bean sprouts, scallions, cilantro, and optional peanuts.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Lime and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 3,491 recipes mention both. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: wheat, peanut, soy (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

  • Tempeh croutons

Directions

Prepare the tempeh

  1. Heat oil and soy sauce in a large skillet over medium heat.

  2. Break tempeh into cubes and add to skillet.

  3. Cook, stirring often, until browned and crisp.

  4. Sprinkle lightly with chili powder and remove pan from heat.

Make the noodles and dressing

  1. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil.

  2. Add noodles, stirring to prevent sticking. Cook according to package directions, until al dente.

  3. In a small bowl, whisk together peanut butter, lime juice, sugar, pepper flakes, soy sauce and water. Set aside.

  4. Drain noodles, rinse under cold running water and drain again.

Assemble and serve

  1. In a large serving bowl, combine noodles, bean sprouts, tempeh, scallions, cilantro and peanuts if using.

  2. Whisk dressing and pour over salad; toss to coat. Serve at room temperature.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

This recipe comes from the Recipes Wiki on Fandom and is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Our formatting and summaries are shared under the same licence.

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Lime + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together3,491 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together34,118 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Lime + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together547 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Lime + mung beantop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together31 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Peanut + mung beantop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together29 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Tempeh
Browns and crisps in the skillet, giving the cubes a chewy-crisp texture and savory flavor.
Soba or udon noodles or linguine
Form the bulk of the dish and carry the dressing; cooking to al dente keeps them from going soft.
Natural-style or reduced-fat peanut butter
Forms the creamy base of the dressing and gives it nutty richness.
Fresh lime juice
Adds acidity that brightens the sweet and savory dressing.
Light brown sugar or sucanat
Balances the acidity and salt of the dressing with mild sweetness.
Fresh mung bean sprouts
Add a crisp, watery crunch that contrasts with the soft noodles.

The step that matters

Cook the noodles to al dente and rinse them cold. Overcooked noodles turn soft and sticky and absorb dressing unevenly. Rinsing under cold water stops carry-over cooking and removes surface starch so the strands stay separate.

Flavor stand-ins for the peanut

The recipe marks peanut as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sauce, lime, sugar, pepper, mung bean, parsley):

  1. Sesamebetter flavor fit
  2. Beansbetter flavor fit
  3. Chickpeabetter flavor fit
  4. Peanutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sauce, lime, sugar, pepper, mung bean, parsley. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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