Cold Sesame Noodles with Cucumber and Chili Oil
Wheat noodles rinsed cold and coated in a peanut-sesame sauce, a starter or side that never goes near a stove after the pot drains.
- Serves
- 4
- Prep
- 15 min
- Cook
- 8 min
- Written
Method
-
Boil the noodles in salted water until just tender, then drain and rinse under cold water until they’ve gone slick and fully cooled.
-
Whisk the peanut butter, soy sauce, rice vinegar, sesame oil, chili oil, brown sugar, and garlic until smooth, then thin with warm water until it drips off the whisk in a steady ribbon.
-
Toss the noodles with the sauce until no dry or white streaks remain.
-
Fold in the cucumber and half the scallions.
-
Pile onto a plate, scatter with the remaining scallions and sesame seeds, and finish with another drizzle of chili oil.
Notes
The cold rinse is doing real work, not just cooling the noodles down — it washes off the surface starch that would otherwise turn the sauce gluey within minutes. Skip it and the dish tightens into a paste before it hits the table.
No peanut butter, tahini works just as well and turns the sauce a shade more bitter, which the brown sugar was already built to balance. This holds in the fridge for a couple of days; loosen it with a splash of water before serving, since the noodles keep drinking the sauce as they sit.