With their bold, Asian-inspired flavors and bountiful crisp-tender vegetables, cool noodle salads make perfect umami-laden vegetarian lunches or dinners. Since we have plenty of successful recipes utilizing spiralized zucchini in place of traditional wheat or rice noodles, we decided to use them again here. Focusing first on how the noodles would be treated, we initially tried boiling them, but they absorbed too much water that diluted our finished dish. Stir-frying the noodles proved no better. In the end, leaving the zucchini noodles raw gave us a texture closer to that of real noodles; plus, tasters enjoyed their delicate, fresh taste accentuated by sesame oil and sriracha.
Red bell pepper gave us color and textural contrast, and for a flavorful dressing, we built a base with peanut butter and soy sauce, adding ginger, rice vinegar, and garlic to round out the flavors. We prefer to spiralize our own zucchini, but you can substitute 1 pound of store-bought spiralized zucchini, though they tend to be drier and less flavorful. Avoid buying large zucchini, which have thicker skins and more seeds.
Jump to RecipeInstructions:
- Using spiralizer, cut zucchini into ⅛-inch-thick noodles, then cut noodles into 12-inch lengths. (You should have 1 pound of zucchini noodles after spiralizing; reserve extra noodles for another use.)
- Whisk peanut butter, soy sauce, vinegar, sesame oil, coconut oil, ginger, sriracha, and garlic in large bowl until smooth. Add zucchini noodles and bell pepper to bowl with dressing and toss to combine.
Sprinkle with sesame seeds. Serve. Keto Meal Prep » Spiralized zucchini, prepared through step 1, can be placed in zipper-lock bag and refrigerated for up to 5 days.
Zucchini Noodle Salad With Peanut-Ginger
Ingredients
- 3 zucchini 8 ounces each, ends trimmed
- ¼ cup unsweetened creamy peanut butter
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon unseasoned rice vinegar
- 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil melted
- 2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
- 1 teaspoon sriracha
- 1 small garlic clove minced
- ½ red bell pepper 4 ounces, stemmed, seeded, and cut into ¼-inch-wide strips
- 2 teaspoons sesame seeds toasted
Instructions
- Using spiralizer, cut zucchini into ⅛-inch-thick noodles, then cut noodles into 12-inch lengths. (You should have 1 pound of zucchini noodles after spiralizing; reserve extra noodles for another use.)
- Whisk peanut butter, soy sauce, vinegar, sesame oil, coconut oil, ginger, sriracha, and garlic in large bowl until smooth. Add zucchini noodles and bell pepper to bowl with dressing and toss to combine. Sprinkle with sesame seeds. Serve. Keto Meal Prep » Spiralized zucchini, prepared through step 1, can be placed in zipper-lock bag and refrigerated for up to 5 days.