This Cold Peanut Noodle Salad is the perfect meal prep for summer! No need to reheat, it’s light but filling, and the flavors are oh so fresh. It’s topped off with a homemade tangy, sweet, and creamy Peanut Lime Dressing to make everything finger-licking good. So have a salad for lunch this week, and enjoy it.
The meal prep containers and dressing containers shown above can be found in my Amazon Shop.
Where’s the Protein?
I didn’t include a “dedicated protein” ingredient in this salad, but that doesn’t mean the meal is void of protein. The vegetables, nuts, and pasta all contain protein, even if in smaller amounts (see 5 Easy Sources of Plant Based Protein). The whole wheat spaghetti alone provides 7 grams of protein per serving. But, if you want to go heavier on the protein you can add something like shelled edamame, Honey Sriracha Tofu, or rotisserie or grilled chicken.
How to Store Cold Peanut Noodle Salad
I suggest keeping the dressing separate from the salad and adding it just before serving, not because the vegetables will get soft, but because the pasta will likely absorb the dressing and it might get dry. I always suggest keeping your meal preps no longer than 4-5 days because textures and flavors tend to go down hill quickly after that. The ingredients in this recipe are all very sturdy and refrigerate extremely well. If anything, you might have a little color bleed from the purple cabbage onto the pasta, but that will not affect the flavor.
How to Use Leftover Cabbage
Cabbage is tricky. No matter how small of a head you get, you always have some left over. So, if you don’t want your leftover red cabbage to go to waste, I suggest trying these recipes: Vinaigrette Slaw with Feta, Sweet Crunch Winter Salad (this will also use your leftover carrots and green onion), or Braised Red Cabbage.
Cold Peanut Noodle Salad
Servings 4 about 2 cups salad eachIngredients
Peanut Lime Dressing
- 3 Tbsp natural-style peanut butter ($0.21)
- 1 Tbsp brown sugar ($0.04)
- 1 clove garlic, minced ($0.08)
- 1/2 tsp grated fresh ginger ($0.05)
- 1 medium lime, juiced (2 Tbsp juice) ($0.69)
- 2 tsp soy sauce ($0.08)
- 1/4 cup neutral oil* ($0.82)
Salad
- 8 oz. whole wheat spaghetti ($0.55)
- 4 cups finely shredded red cabbage ($1.12)
- 2 carrots ($0.22)
- 1/2 bunch cilantro (about 1/2 cup chopped) ($0.75)
- 4 green onions (about 1/2 cup sliced) ($0.45)
- 1/2 cup peanuts, chopped ($0.24)
Instructions
- To make the peanut lime dressing, combine all the ingredients in a bowl or blender. Whisk or blend until smooth. Set the dressing aside.
- Bring a pot of water to a boil for the whole wheat spaghetti. Break the spaghetti in half to make it easier to stir into the salad ingredients later. Once the water is boiling, add the spaghetti, and continue to boil until the pasta is tender. Drain in a colander and rinse it briefly with cold water to cool it off. Let the pasta drain well.
- Meanwhile, shred the cabbage as finely as possible using either a knife or the shredding attachment of a food processor. Shred the carrots using a large-holed cheese grater. Roughly chop the cilantro and peanuts. Slice the green onion.
- Combine the cooled and well drained pasta in a large bowl with the cabbage, carrots, cilantro, green onion, and peanuts. Toss the salad until the ingredients are evenly combined.
- Serve the salad and peanut lime dressing immediately, or divide the undressed salad between four containers (about 2 cups each) and divide the dressing between four smaller containers (about 2 Tbsp or slightly more each). Refrigerate up to 4-5 days.
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Notes
Nutrition
Video
Scroll down for the step by step photos!
How to Make Cold Peanut Noodle Salad – Step by Step Photos
To make the peanut lime dressing, combine 3 Tbsp peanut butter, 1 Tbsp brown sugar, one minced clove of garlic, 1/2 tsp grated fresh ginger, 2 Tbsp lime juice, 2 tsp soy sauce, and 1/4 cup neutral oil (any mild-flavored oil) in a bowl or blender.
Whisk or blend the ingredients until smooth. Set the dressing aside.
Next, bring a pot of water to a boil for the noodles. You’ll need 8 oz. of whole wheat spaghetti for this recipe. I always break my spaghetti in half when I know it’s going to be stirred into other solid ingredients. It helps them combine more evenly instead of creating one big clump of pasta in the middle. Boil the pasta until tender, then drain in a colander, and give it a brief rinse with cold water to cool it off. Let the spaghetti drain well.
Finely shred about 4 cups of red cabbage. Making sure the cabbage is shredded VERY finely is key here. Thick pieces of cabbage are not good in this recipe. 4 cups is roughly equivalent to 3/4 to 1 pound of cabbage whole. So if you have a 2 lb. cabbage, use about half of it.
Shred two carrots using a large-holed cheese grater. Or, if you used the shredder attachment on a food processor to shred the cabbage, you can switch to the grating attachment to do the carrots.
Roughly chop about 1/2 bunch cilantro and slice about 4 green onions. You’ll want about 1/2 cup of each, but it’s extremely flexible. Also roughly chop 1/2 cup peanuts.
Combine the cooled spaghetti, cabbage, carrot, cilantro, green onion, and peanuts in a large bowl.
Toss the salad ingredients together until evenly combined.
Either serve the cold peanut noodle salad with the peanut lime dressing immediately, or divide it between four containers. I suggest leaving the dressing separate and adding it just before serving. These meal prep and dressing containers can be found in my Amazon store.
That dressing, crunchy cabbage, and cold noodles is just magic together! SO FRESH.
This is a very good recipe. I used soba noodles and added some chili flakes and sriracha to the dressing for a little heat. Next time I will double the dressing.
I liked this a lot. Next time I make it I’ll use a bit more soy sauce and lime juice and add a bit of sraracha!
This is exceptional. I added red bell pepper slivers. Also, a few red chili pepper flakes for the dressing. I used Aldi’s linguini because it was in the pantry.
This was fantastic!
I used Jif instead of natural style. I would’ve liked more cilantro but I picked my plant clean! I also added sugar snap peas. Lastly I used a bag of vegetable slaw instead of chopping the lame looking cabbage that my store had.
Leftovers the next day were just as good. Loved flavor combo and then the texture of soft and crunchy.
This is a great summer recipe – quick and easy and light!
This is becoming a staple in my recipe book.
I swap for soba/buckwheat noodles to accommodate GF + more light noodle.
More or less ginger depending the mood.
Swap in dark soy for a richer, chocolately taste with the pb.
I cooked this for a bridal shower and saw it disappear in no time!
Thank you for sharing!
Hi there, would any type of pasta be okay with this recipe
Yes, you could use any type of pasta here, although some varieties are better suited than others because of the texture and flavor.
Wow! This surpassed my expectations — both quicker and more delicious! A definite repeater, especially with summer just starting. I subbed soba noodles for the spaghetti and used a pre-shredded mix as there was a really good sale at the grocery. I’ve tried a few peanut sauces over the years, and this is my new favorite! I think next time I’ll add some shelled edamame and some frozen corn.
How important is the “natural-style” part of the peanut butter? Can I just use my jar of regular no-stir creamy trader joe’s peanut butter I have at home, or do I need to go out and buy something different? Also, what exactly does “natural” mean? No sugar added? Chunky?
Natural style is just ground up peanuts, sometimes with a little salt, as opposed to other commercial types like Jif that have a lot of added sugar and hydrogenated oils to keep the texture uniform. The benefit to the natural style is that the peanut flavor is a lot stronger. :) You can use other types of peanut butter, just keep in mind that if yours has sugar it will make your dressing sweet and you might not have as robust of a peanut flavor. The texture different shouldn’t be an issue for this recipe.
Made this with chickpea spaghetti for the extra protein and really enjoyed it! The only thing I’d change for next time is I might double the dressing.
This recipe was such a nice change of pace! It got me excited about cooking again!
Oh my goodness, this was so good! I doubled the recipe but wish I hadn’t lol! It made way too much! Even though it says four servings, in our house, it would serve six, at least! The dressing was amazing, so I made extra. I used Barilla whole grain spaghetti. Served it with grilled steak and your Honey Sriracha Tofu, for my vegetarian daughter, which also delicious! Definitely making this again.
quick and healthy
I used egg noodles, not spaghetti and it worked really well,
Delicious! Made this for meal prep and will be adding it into the regular rotation. I do have a peanut allergy, but am for whatever reason drawn to recipes with peanut in the dang title, but subbed almond butter for the peanut butter (kept ratio the same), and cashews for the topping. Worked out great. Quick and easy to batch prep too!
Absolutely amazing!
I made this recipe tonight with what I had on hand. I didn’t have any green onions – will do next time. I had leftover pasta, I added minced raw carrot & small sliced snap peas & about 3 cups of cabbage salad mix and a few drops of truffle siracha sauce to the sauce, I also zested one of the key limes into the sauce, I made like 1.5 times the sauce and kept it separate for our lunch tomorrow. I added a little too much soy sauce – it’s a little salty ( it was not low sodium). This was nice & easy to make. We’re trying to eat healthier & eat out less these days & doing copycat recipes. I really try to keep it interesting in rotation – this was a nice change to have a “cold” entree.