Who here has seen Ratatouille? Today’s flop-turned-okay lunch reminded me of the scene where Chef Skinner tries to set Linguine up for failure by giving him a dud of a recipe. Remy made it the most amazing thing at Gusteau’s in years; I just made mine edible.
I started with a recipe I found in Parenting magazine for Sesame Chicken Salad that looked promising. It had an Asian-inspired peanut sauce… that ended up tasting like peanut-butter-sandwich pasta. Gross.
I doctored it up to edibility, but I could use your help!
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8 oz. pasta that you let your kid pick out to get them excited about trying something new
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1 cup snow peas
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1 cup shredded cooked chicken
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2 carrots, sliced thinly into coins (if serving cold, just grate them & serve them raw in the pasta)
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scant 1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
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2 tsp. brown sugar
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3 Tbsp. reduced-sodium soy sauce
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2 tsp. sesame oil
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2 tsp. cider vinegar
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pinch ginger
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Cook the pasta as directed. Add the carrot coins to the boiling water 4 minutes before the pasta is done, & the snow peas 1 minute before. Drain. (If serving cold, rinse under cold water.)
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Mix the rest of the ingredients together in a large bowl. It may not incorporate entirely; the hot pasta will help melt the peanut butter.
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Mix everything well & top with sesame seeds & thinly sliced scallions, if desired.
Okay, team: what can we do to make this good but still kid-friendly? My first thought was red pepper flakes, but The Munchkin can’t take the heat.
Thanks for your help!
Maybe a little freshly squeezed lime juice? Looking through several different peanut sauce recipes, the lime juice seems to be a recurring theme; perhaps the citrus would help balance out the peanut flavor.
I love peanut sauces, and it is a little more challenging to make it savory without using heat (like Sriracha and chili oil, which are my standbys). I would use a liquid sweetener instead of the brown sugar, and use less of it like maybe a scant tablespoon of honey or agave. I would also use rice vinegar instead of cider, and put some diced garlic in there, too. You might also want to consider using some coconut milk to thin it to a more dressing-like consistency since sticky peanut butter mouthfeel can make it seem less saucy and more like, well, a peanut butter sandwich.
Generally, I just taste my pb sauces cold and tweak as needed. I find I often want more soy sauce and vinegar than is called for in recipes.
LOVE the idea of a pasta salad, though! Ooh, and I’d probably add some chopped basil or cilantro at the end, too.
This looks so good! I love pasta with a peanut/Thai sauce. Can’t wait to try this one.