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.
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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.
See how we calculate recipe costs here.
Equipment
- Chef’s Knife
- White Cutting Boards
- Glass Meal Prep Containers
- Dipping Cups
Notes
Nutrition
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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 was delicious! My nine year old loved it too, although she preferred it without the sauce…easy win since the sauce is separate. Thank you for explaining how to keep it in the fridge. Not knowing any better I probably would have dumped all the sauce over the salad and had it looking pretty sad after a bit. I’m slow in the kitchen so this took longer for me to cut everything but it was worth it.
I just made a batch and now I’m trying to type between forkfulls of this stuff. This is definitely going to be a go-to lunch prep for me. It is insanely good. I subbed soba for the spaghetti because it’s what I had on hand but I otherwise stuck to the recipe. Next time, I’ll take the advice of the other commenters and make extra sauce. Thanks as always, Beth!
So good! So glad I doubled the dressing – using the leftover dressing on everything. I can’t believe how many amazing recipes I’ve found on this site over the past couple years – it’s definitely my go to place for delicious recipes that are always delicious, as written, every time. Thank you!
I made this earlier in the week for lunches and I have been eating it up! It is so flavorful and filling. I added edamame and shredded chicken, which makes it perfectly filling. I think I used more than 4 c of cabbage, as this made a ton! I’ll happily eat it for days though. Next time I’ll make 1.5x the peanut lime dressing though, since it’s so good!
I wasn’t able to find red cabbage (it’s a seasonal thing in Germany, I think), so I used white – still delicious! Hubby said he’d put his serving in the microwave today before adding the dressing because it reminded him of fried noodles… well, I can see his point. I often use whole wheat spaghetti for that, too!
Anyway, the dressing… I will make this as a dip sauce for the next grilling evening, definitely!
I tried this today for lunch. I left out the noodles and added grilled chicken. Super tasty and I can’t wait to have it tomorrow. I also added some avocado. Turned out to be a complete meal, leaving me full until dinner.
I made this for lunch today, and can’t wait to have it tomorrow. Truly simple and delicious.
This one’s a winner for sure. I followed the recipe exactly except I used only 1/8 cup of peanuts and half the amount of oil to keep calories down. It came out to about 400 calories a serving! The sauce definitely was a little overly thick because of the lessened oil but I was still able to coat the dish. If you have the calorie bandwidth I would recommend following the recipe.
Quick and delicious!
I really liked this easy recipe. I added cubed baked tofu for some extra protien. Awesome summer meal!
You really knocked this one out of the park! I’ve been having it all week and just made another batch. Note to others: if you love peanut sauce double or triple the sauce recipe. I found that I wanted a lot more than what the original recipe calls for! Also made this using sunflower seed butter for my husband who is allergic to peanuts and it worked great!
I prepped this for my roommate and myself this week, and we both have been so excited to eat it every day! Thank you for sharing
Thanks for reminding me that I had peanut dressing in the fridge – and Tonight I pulled out some pre-cut cabbage slaw for me and my visiting boy… that slaw is past its best by date, but still looks good. Guess what I will have for my lunch tomorrow!? YUM
Ha ha, I agree about that leftover cabbage. I always have such good intentions. My husband doesn’t like cabbage except very overcooked with corned beef so it is always up to me to try to fit in the cabbage wherever and whenever I can!
This sounds delicious and as someone else mentioned, I have a pot luck coming up soon and one family is vegan so this might fill in some gaps between macaroni and potato salads that are likely to NOT be vegan!
I’ve now made this everyday since it was posted. My husband is hooked.
I do sub out the soy sauce and brown sugar for coconut aminos. They are like a sweet replacement for soy sauce…and so good!!
Thank you Beth. You make our home a tastier place!!