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.
Beth – you knocked it out of the park with this recipe!!! I added edamame. Delicious!!!!
Mmm this looks good. Can I use extra virgin olive oil for this recipe?
You sure can!
Even my cabbage resistant house enjoyed this!
Awesome!
Only thing is, I would double the dressing recipe. Otherwise not enough to mix in all the way.
Beth, I love all your recipe! Even if some of not for my taste, I appreciate that I can try many new flavour. Somehow I especially love your noddle recepies! Before I found this page I didn’t eat meatless noddle (and they wasn’t my favorite too), but now it changed! I was sceptical about this recipe, but after I made it I can say it’s awesome!
Also I’m making vegetarian food at home and I don’t eat much meat, just a couple of times in a month; thanks to budgetbytes’ recipes I can go on with this ‘lifestyle’ really well.
Thanks!
LOVE this recipe! Not only is it very budget friendly, we had everything needed in our pantry. We subbed almond butter for peanut butter because it’s what we had on hand, and we only needed to purchase the produce and whole wheat spaghetti. I added some sriracha to the peanut sauce to give it a little heat.
We will absolutely make this again and again.
soo good., ive made it twice and passed the recipie onto my cousi, whos done it twice too.
I bbqd some chicken and let cool and added it on top for some more protien and substance.,
I’m making this my new tradition when I’m running low on peanut butter — just add everything to the jar and shake it 😊 Fun fact, if it’s too thick, a sploosh of orange juice thins it out and adds some really cool flavor. Happy summer!
Fantastic!! Used toasted sesame oil for 1T of the oil and it was perfect!! Thank you!
I made it today…I used ramen noodles and because the dressing was just a little bit too sweet for my taste I added a bit of the ramen broth…it turned out awesome!
Wow! Love, Love how you explain it so clearly, also, love the step by step instructions!!!
I’ve made this three or four times by now. It’s great. it lasts 5+ days in the fridge. Easy to make gluten free by using lentil spaghetti. I make a batch and have it every day for either lunch or dinner. The more protein-dense lentil pasta really gives me a sense of being full. Can’t recommend this recipe enough.
My only advice is that you double the amount of dressing. I always run out of dressing a couple days before I’m out of salad.
I’m exercising a LOT of restraint not straight up drinking the dressing. This is such a good salad I’m certainly going to make again.
Would this recipe work with almond butter and slivered almonds instead of the peanut butter and peanuts/
We haven’t tested it with almond butter and almonds but it could be delicious!
Oh dear…. this is going to be my new favorite GO TO RECIPE! I mean, all these amazing flavors so harmoniously blend and it saves well because it’s cabbage! I applaud you again Beth for another amazing recipe that I will cherish forever!