This post may contain affiliate links. Please see disclosure policy here.
This Thai noodle salad is always a crowd pleaser and has lots of amazing textures and flavors going on!
For some other delicious pasta salads try this BLT Pasta Salad, a sandwich in salad form. This Spinach Pasta Salad is a go to at our house along with this Broccoli Pasta Salad.
A few weeks ago I attended a woman’s event at church. It was a potluck salad dinner. I took an amazing blueberry and corn salad. Sounds like a strange combination but it is delish.
At this particular potluck there were the standard salads – spinach salad, chicken salad, pasta salad, fruit salad . There was one salad in particular that stood out – it was a Thai Noodle Salad.
My daughter Cali attended the event with me and after tasting the salad she informed me that I needed to get the recipe. So of course I asked around and discovered that the cook was my friend Sara. Sara is a great cook so I shouldn’t be surprised that it was her recipe.
If you like peanut butter you will love this salad. It doesn’t have a heavy peanut butter flavor, it’s just right. I loved the crunchy chopped peanuts and cilantro on top.
The salad also has bean sprouts, grated carrot and green onions so there is lots of amazing flavor and texture happening.
I made the salad up before we went to church on Sunday and then just let it sit until we got home – it is best served at room temperature. The real test for any recipe at our house is if EVERYONE loves it and this one passed the test!
It makes plenty and all the leftovers disappeared the next day! So next time you have to take a salad to a potluck event – give this one a try!
Thai Noodle Salad
Ingredients
- 12 oz. linguine
- 3 Tbsp. sesame oil
- 6 green onions chopped (save some for garnish)
- 5 cloves garlic minced
- 1 Tbsp. fresh ginger grated
- 1/4 cup peanut butter
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1/4 cup soy sauce
- 3 Tbsp. rice vinegar
- 1 1/2 Tbsp. chili garlic sauce I used 1 Tbsp. as some of my family don’t like too much heat
- 2 cups fresh bean sprouts
- 1 cup finely grated carrot
- 1/2 cup chopped peanuts chopped green onion and chopped cilantro for topping
Instructions
- Cook 12 oz. linguine in a large pot of boiling salted water, until tender but firm to the bite
- Drain well and place pasta in a large serving bowl
- Toss with sesame oil
- In a large frying pan, heat sesame oil over medium heat, add green onions, garlic and ginger
- Saute for a couple of minutes
- Then add peanut butter, honey and soy sauce, along with rice vinegar, chili garlic sauce
- Cook for one minute longer
- Add to the pasta bean sprouts and carrot
- Toss together
- Garnish with chopped peanuts, green onions and cilantro
- Serve at room temperature
- Good made ahead and left out until serving time
- Makes 8 servings
Nutrition Facts:
Originally posted in 2008
HB Girl says
So I just finished making this salad for the second time in ONE week. The first time it was good… really good, but this time I felt more familiar about the ingredients and it came out even better. I used a whole box of linguine because that’s how it comes and I didn’t want to try to figure out how much 12 oz were vs 16 oz. So, I just upped all the ingredients (except chili garlic sauce-yikes! even just 1 T is hot) a bit over the original recipe which made it saucier (which was good, because the first batch became understandably a little dry as time went on) and this batch ROCKS. The flavors are so good.
A couple of things I did to make it even more exceptional was I only put 1/2 of the bean sprouts in at the beginning and then kept adding more as we at the left overs because I like crunch factor and bean sprouts tend to cook pretty easily in the warm noodles. And because I like the crunch factor so much I also added chopped peanuts–again, some while dish was hot, and more as time went on. I’m thinking maybe next time I’ll even add some water chestnuts to the sauce before adding it to the pasta.
The whole thing takes only about 30 minutes to make (including cooking the noodles) so it’s a dish worth having in your arsenal. Now, I want to have a dinner party just so I can make this for my friends.
I am so happy to have found this recipe, THANK YOU so much for posting it!
Leigh Anne says
I love that you love it!! I’m with you on the crunch factor, the more the better and I love the tweeks you made. Thanks!
Patty says
I would love to try this, can it be made without bean sprouts?
Leigh Anne says
Sure, just leave them out.
SinNH says
Can this be made without pasta? I’m trying to cut carbs by any means without sacrificing taste. I have a veggetti spiralizer, maybe spiralized zucchini?
Leigh Anne says
I have never done it that way but I don’t see why not. Let me know what you think.