Skip to main content
Main

Chinese Noodles in Peanut Sauce

A Chinese noodle dish tossed in a creamy peanut sauce and garnished with carrot, cucumber, peanuts, and green onions.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 19 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Peanut and sauce work together. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and 434 recipes mention both. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

The recipe

Time30 minutes

Ingredients

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

  • Dressing

Also mentioned in the method: cream

Directions

Cook the noodles

  1. Boil noodles in a large pot of unsalted water over medium heat until barely tender and still firm.

  2. Drain the noodles immediately.

  3. Rinse the noodles with cold water until cold.

  4. Drain the noodles well and toss them with 2 Tbsp dark sesame oil so they don't stick together.

Make the dressing

  1. Combine all dressing ingredients except hot water in a blender or food processor fitted with a steel blade and blend until smooth.

  2. Thin the dressing with hot water to the consistency of whipping cream.

Garnish and serve

  1. Put the carrot julienne in ice water for 30 minutes for garnish.

  2. Just before serving, toss the noodles with the dressing.

  3. Garnish the noodles with cucumber, peanuts, green onion, and carrot.

  4. Serve the dish 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. Peanut + saucetop 12% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together434 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Sesame + peanuttop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together349 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-ethyl-3,6-dimethylpyrazine (roasted, nutty).

  3. Peanut + garlictop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together877 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-ethyl-2,5-dimethylpyrazine (roasted, nutty).

  4. Sesame + garlictop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,999 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  5. Vinegar + honeytop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together1,583 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Noodles
Provide the bulk and chewy texture that the dressing clings to.
Peanut butter
Gives the sauce its creamy body and rich nutty flavour.
Sesame paste
Adds thick body and deep toasted sesame flavour to the dressing.
Dark soy sauce
Contributes salty depth and colour to the dressing.
Honey or sugar syrup
Adds sweetness to balance the salty soy and sharp vinegar.
White vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the rich, heavy peanut and sesame flavours.

The step that matters

Thin the dressing with hot water to the consistency of whipping cream. Peanut butter and sesame paste thicken as they cool and can coat noodles unevenly or clump. Adding hot water while blending loosens the emulsion so the sauce spreads smoothly over the noodles instead of sitting in pockets.

Flavor stand-ins for the garlic

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sesame, peanut, butter, sauce, sherry, vinegar, honey):

  1. Gingerabout as good a flavor fit
  2. Garlicthe original
  3. Cinnamonabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against sesame, peanut, butter, sauce, sherry, vinegar, honey. 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.

You might also like

Illustration of Carrot SoupIllustrationCarrot Soup134 recipesIllustration of Tomato SoupIllustrationTomato Soup526 recipesIllustration of Brown BreadIllustrationBrown Bread461 recipesIllustration of Mutton BrothIllustrationMutton Broth292 recipes