Easy Cold Noodle Salad with Peanut Dressing

This cold noodle salad is packed with crunchy vegetables and tossed in a creamy peanut butter sauce. It's ready in 30 minutes, making it the ultimate easy dinner or lunch, especially during warmer weather!

Jump to:

• ❤️ Why You'll Love This Cold Noodle Salad
• 📝 Ingredients You'll Need
• 🍽 How To Make Cold Noodle Salad
• 👩‍🍳 Recipe Tips and Variations
• FAQs
• Cold Noodle Salad with Peanut Dressing

This vegan cold noodle salad is great for picnics or potlucks. It's full of flavour and great for making ahead. Ready in under 30 minutes, it's so easy to make, which is great when the weather is really hot. This is a very flexible salad; you can mix and match the vegetables to your own taste, just keep them as raw and as crunchy as possible.

The creamy peanut sauce is one of my favourite things. There are a few ingredients in it, but nothing you can't find in the supermarket. If you have any leftover sauce, you could use it as a marinade for veggie skewers or a crispy tofu salad. We love this noodle salad as a main dish, but it's great as a side dish too.

❤️ Why You'll Love This Cold Noodle Salad

• Ready in 20 minutes
• Great for meal prep or packed lunches
• Vegan & easy to make gluten free
• Customizable with your favourite veggies
• Bursting with umami, crunch, and freshness

📝 Ingredients You'll Need

For the full list of ingredients and step-by-step instructions, please see the recipe card below.

- For The Noodle Salad

• Noodles - you can use any noodles of your choice for this recipe. We love whole wheat noodles, ramen noodles, and rice noodles. Soba noodle work well too.
• Vegetables - the options are endless here, but I recommend you keep them crunchy and raw. Peppers, red cabbage, onions, carrots and radish all work really well. I also add sugar snap peas, which I blanch for a minute or two first. If you want to skip this, you could use mange tout instead. Baby spinach is milder in flavour, so this is best too. I add some fresh herbs to this too, and coriander (cilantro) is great in this, but if you're not keen, you can leave it out.
• Nuts - I use jumbo peanuts for this recipe; unroasted is best. If you don't like peanut,s you could also use cashews instead; they work really well too.

- For The Peanut Butter Dressing

• Peanut Nut Butter - smooth peanut butter is best for this dressing. I use 100% natural peanut butter with no added sugar. 
• Sweet Chilli Sauce - I use a sweet chilli sauce that has a bit of a kick to it, you can use a mild version if you want. And if you are watching your sugar intake, there are reduced sugar versions available.
• Soy Sauce - light soy sauce is best, you can use reduced-sodium if you like.
• Ginger, Garlic, Chilli - fresh is best here, and you can add more garlic if you want. 
• Lime juice - again, fresh is best, and 1 medium lime should do the trick.

🍽 How To Make Cold Noodle Salad

Step 1: Toast the peanuts - roughly chop the peanuts. Add them to a dry pan and toast over medium heat until golden. Add a tablespoon of maple syrup to the pan and stir into the nuts. Once the nuts are sticky, turn off the heat. Transfer the nuts to a plate or bowl and sprinkle a pinch of sea salt over the nuts.

Step 2: Cook the noodles + make the dressing - cook the noodles according to the pack instructions, drain and leave to cool. Add all the ingredients for the dressing to a bowl and whisk together. Add a little water to loosen the dressing. Keep adding a tablespoon of water one at a time until you have a smooth, runny dressing. Set aside until you are ready to use.

Step 3: Chop the veggies - you can chop, shred or cut your veggies into ribbons if you want. I cut the carrots into ribbons and slice or shred everything else. I leave the sugar snap peas and spinach intact unless the leaves are really big and then I chop them up. Add everything to a large bowl along with the coriander and toss well.

Step 4: Add noodle + dressing - add the cold noodles to the vegetables, then add the dressing. Toss everything together. Serve with the toasted peanuts and lime wedges. 

👩‍🍳 Recipe Tips and Variations

• Switch up the veggies - there are so many ways you can switch this up! Courgettes (zucchini), edamame, cucumber, french beans and Brussel sprouts would all be great in this.
• Switch up the noodles - I use whole wheat noodles for this recipe however you can use the noodles, soba noodles work well as do egg noodles or rice noodles.
• Add-ins - toasted sesame seeds or crispy tofu are really good in this. You could also serve this with some Katsu tofu on top.
• Make it gluten-free - this is easy to make gluten-free, just use your favourite gluten-free noodles and swap the soy sauce for tamari.
• Peanut allergy? Swap the peanut butter for almond butter and the toasted peanuts for cashews.
• Make it ahead - you can make the dressing and the toasted nuts the day before, keep the dressing in the fridge, and the nuts in an airtight container can be left in a kitchen cupboard. The noodles are best cooked fresh. You could prep the veg earlier that day if you want.
• Storing/leftovers - if you're making this to take on a picnic or pot luck I would not add the coriander. Keep the salad in a covered bowl in the fridge. I would keep the nuts separate they can be kept in an airtight container on the kitchen counter. Leftovers will keep for about 2 or 3 days.

FAQs

More Tasty Vegan Salads

• Falafel Bowls - Perfectly crispy falafel salad bowls with brown rice and veggies. Served with creamy tahini sauce, these falafel bowls are great for a tasty vegan lunch or dinner.
• Moroccan Couscous Salad - With roasted vegetables and chickpeas, this tasty, spiced Moroccan couscous salad is packed with amazing North African flavours.
• Avocado Quinoa Salad - A fresh and zesty salad with warmly spiced crispy chickpeas and a tangy dressing.

Have you made this recipe? Please leave a comment below to let me know how it went. I love getting your feedback.