Andrew Zimmern shows us how to make spicy peanut noodles using pantry ingredients
Andrew Zimmern is encouraging home chefs to get crafty because it’s pantry raiding time.
The award-winning chef and host of MSNBC’s What’s Eating America whips up a recipe for cold spicy peanut noodles using ingredients picked from his pantry in the new Yahoo Life series, Cooking for Comfort.
“In the freezer, I had some leftover Japanese ramen noodles,” Zimmern explains. So he opened up the pantry and grabbed ingredients to make some spicy peanut noodles.
The star ingredient? Peanut butter.
The peanut butter, mixed with pantry staples like soy sauce, sesame oil, sherry wine vinegar, chili oil, mirin and fresh ginger, is simply whisked together to make a delicious sauce. Some of the more uncommon ingredients, like mirin, can easily be swapped with other pantry staples like sugar.
Top the noodles with fresh scallions, and the dish is done in minutes.
“I’ve actually never made these with ramen noodles before,” Zimmern says. But with pantry cooking, that’s the whole point – use whatever ingredients you have on hand. Zimmern explains you can swap the ramen noodles for any kind of noodle you like even linguine or spaghetti.
“The sharpness of scallion greens with spicy peanut noodles is almost the reason in and of itself to eat this dish,” says Zimmern.
To see how Zimmern makes his cold spicy peanut noodles, watch the video above, and read the full recipe below.
Andrew Zimmern’s Cold Spicy Peanut Noodles
1 portion of any kind of noodles, from ramen to leftover spaghetti
1 teaspoon mirin (substitute: sugar)
1 teaspoon sherry wine vinegar (substitute: apple cider vinegar)
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon hot chili oil (substitute: any chile, based on your heat preference, finely chopped)
1 1/2 teaspoons peanut butter
1/2 inch piece ginger, peeled
1-2 scallions
Cook whatever noodles you're using according to the package directions. Skip this step if using leftover spaghetti.
While the noodles cook, prepare the spicy peanut dressing. Using a Microplane, grate the peeled ginger into a large bowl. You'll only need about 1 tsp of grated ginger. Add the sesame oil, mirin, soy sauce, sherry wine vinegar, peanut butter and hot chili oil to the bowl. Whisk ingredients together.
When the noodles are done cooking, strain, then rinse under cold water. Transfer the noodles to a paper towel and shake them for 30 seconds so that way the sauce adheres to the noodles. Once dry, place the noodles in the bowl with the sauce and stir to combine.
Transfer the noodles to a plate to serve. Chop the scallion and garnish on top.
For more recipe ideas from Andrew Zimmern, visit AndrewZimmern.com.
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