Creamy Sesame Noodle Salad (30 Minutes!)

This is a wonderful summer recipe. It’s easy to make parts ahead, double the recipe for a party or picnic, and modify. I’ve made it twice now, once as a double recipe for a crowd, and it’s a hit. Pretty low effort and high reward. It’s great with blanched chopped asparagus.

Amazing recipe! This has become a regular dish for my family.

Loved it! Easy and quick for a weekday dinner. I did not add cilantro (we don’t like it) and otherwise added brown sugar instead of maple syrup which we didn’t have. I used extra brown sugar (maybe 1 1/2 T) because it’s maybe less sweet than maple syrup, not sure. I didn’t serve this with tofu or seitan, just a green side.

This was delicious! A hit for the adults and kids. We added edamame, red pepper, and snow peas to boost the veggies. This will be on repeat!

WOW. I was planning on doubling the sauce because with most recipes I never seem to have enough to really be satisfying …but, I was surprised to see I had just enough tahini for one batch, and it had to go into the mini food processor because it was well separated and very, VERY, caked solid. This was actually great because I first used it to chop the (dry) peanuts, the (pretty dry) cilantro, and I just threw in the garlic cloves —adding one bc mine were not big— and about 1” a chunk of peeled ginger. It tasted a little sweet to me, so I added about a tablespoon of peanut butter (that’s what I had!) and 1/2 Tbs more dark sesame oil. It was phenomenal —yes, seriously lick the bowl good. AND, I had PLENTY to generously cover the noodles! Nice job, MB!

I also cubed a block of extra firm tofu, used about 1/3-1/2C flour in a gallon ziploc to coat them, and quickly fried them in an iron skillet coated with avo oil over med-hi heat for 6mins, flipping (not at all precisely) at 3mins for a golden brown, crispy outside. I preheat the pan for 2mins, then add oil and heat another 1.5-2mins —you can just see the heat coming up, but not smoking. This makes them crispy, not soaked in oil and soggy. My hubby—who is not a huge tofu fan— said, “The tofu really adds to the flavor. I can really say that.” —lol

A hit at the dinner table! My discriminating husband and 16yo son (we’re kinda foodies and although I cook a lot, we eat out at a lot of very nice restaurants) LOVED it …like they had 2nds and 3rds.

Super easy and fast, and it seems pretty healthful —highly, highly recommend.

I make this dressing all the time now. I love this sauce so much.
I include the peanuts and coriander but vary the actual salad to include carrots and red peppers and lots more. I love it. Thank you.

This is delicious! A definite keeper. I made it with the cucumber the first time and I liked it but felt I would like it better with snow peas, so I tried it that way and that is my preference. I have used them both raw and just lightly sauteed in water. Delish! I have made it without the sesame oil as well and it was great that way, too. I am so thrilled to find this site!

Delicious. Would use a lower sodium tamari next time. Added some chili paste for a little zip. Great recipe, thank you!

Absolutely loved this! It was so simple to make and yummy. I even got to use the cucumbers from my garden. I’ve made it twice already

This was a delicious entrée! I doubled the recipe for our household and used whole wheat spaghetti for the noodles. I also topped it off with seasoned roasted tofu. Regarding the sauce, the well known drippy brand of Tahini I used was very bitter. Probably the most bitter Tahini I’ve ever used so I cut it with drippy peanut butter. And, the sauce still turned out great!

Great fresh recipe that’s open to improvisation which is perfect – only me and I eyed balled most of it (apart from the sauce). My swaps: 100g frozen cooked wholegrain rice (defrosted in the microwave), a cooked chicken breast shredded (protein for dinner meal), added leftover salad leaves, 1/2 lime juiced (more than 1tbsp), added leftover 1/3 bag salad leaves, 1tsp garlic olive oil for raw garlic, sliced radish and copious amounts of coriander for more freshness against the rice/dressing. Tahini brands really do make a big difference to the final outcome and so does fresh ginger! Thank you :D

Everyone in our household went back for seconds including 2 and 4 year old. We added steamed broccoli and tofu. Will definitely make again!

I’ve made this several times now & absolutely love it. Thanks for sharing this gem!

I agree with other reviewers that it is fun to add more veggies to this recipe. I charred cabbage, red bell pepper, radish and cucumbers and added to the noodles then also added fresh diced fresh Thai chili to the toppings. Another option for finishing is some chili crunch. Roughly chopped nuts add a great texture.

I have made this twice and it just got better! I used rice noodles, tamari and cashews and everything else was exactly as written. I have been vegan for 8 years but newly gluten sensitive. This is very satisfying and very simple to make. Highly recommend!

This was fabulous! The sesame dressing was perfectly balanced. The best I have ever made and I have tried several variations. My husband really enjoyed his lunch today. I made it for him while my 8 ingredient lasagna is baking in the oven for me! Smells divine, I will report back on that recipes comment section. Thank you!

It was so good! We made this alongside the Grilled Teriyaki Tofu Skewers from this website (we treated this like a ‘side’ to the skewers) and it was a fantastic combination. I love ginger so I did like 2-3x the amount of ginger, and my tahini was much harder so the sauce wasn’t as smooth as in her video, but it still turned out and tasted delicious. I also topped with some black sesame seeds for a nice finish. Thanks for this great recipe! It was a hit with my family who prefer meat, and this combo it was filling for several hours.
Also – on hot days in summer – it’s PERFECT because it requires very little cooking time

My husband and I made this for dinner last night because we were craving something light that would not take much prep time. We also had nearly all of the ingredients in our house or garden. I substituted chives from our garden for the green onions. I used only 1 or 2 Tbs of reduced sodium tamari, and I added slivered baked teriyaki tofu that we had on hand, which was wonderful. Overall, this was a fantastic dish and we will make it often. We may try it with some different veggies, in the event that we don’t have cucumber. I think lightly blanched green beans or broccoli would work well.

Loved this recipe!

Make this for dinner tonight. Easy and delicious! We will absolutely make it again.

Different but very tasty

This was the perfect quick meal for a very humid summer day. I made the sauce as written (simple and delicious!) and embellished the noodles with shredded romaine leaves, sliced red peppers, blanched and chopped green beans from the garden along with the suggested cucumber and green onions. I omitted the nuts and swapped the cilantro for parsley. Oh, and I added air-fried tofu cubes. Thanks for the inspiration! This is a recipe I’ll return to this summer for sure!

Made this for a quick dinner tonight and really loved it. This came out nice and light, the sauce and noodles were not heavy at all. I had everything on hand, and the cucumber was from the garden. Unfortunately the grocery store had no cilantro, so I used Italian parsley. It was still delicious, but I think cilantro would complement the flavors well. The only other substitution I made was to use powdered garlic in the dressing because I do not like the taste of raw garlic. Came out great, and I will make this in the future, adding different vegetables, tofu, herbs, as variations.

Delightful! The sauce is very similar to my favorite peanut sauce – creamy with a nice ginger zing -I got from my local co-op. I made this with cashew butter instead of tahini and topped with lentils and Sriracha cashews in addition to the cucumber, onions, and cilantro.

This is a winner as I’ve made this twice this week-once as shown and once substituting peanut butter. The vote is in and the tahini version won!

Served over a handful of chopped red cabbage with dry toasted tofu cubes and peanuts-Yumm!

Delicious noodle salad! Next time I will add some edamame for more protein and carrot or red cabbage for color. Highly recommend it to everyone. Thanks for sharing minimalistbaker team!

Very yummy and refreshing! I felt like it had a teeny bit too much sauce so it was slightly too runny and not all sticking to the noodles, but that could very easily be my tahini brand or some other mis-measurement. A great lunch recipe that I’ll be making often.

I made this today for lunch and it was delicious! I subbed out the udon noodles for gluten-free rice spaghetti noodles (the store I bought from didn’t have them). It tasted amazing — it’s the perfect amount of sweet, and I also found it very filling even by itself. I took a few bites and that was all I really needed for like the next four hours.

I’m also not a chef by any means, but the instructions were so easy to follow that I didn’t have any trouble. I definitely plan on making this again! :D

Loved it. It was a big hit different from my usual staple foods and I added marinated baked tofu bites. Perfect for the warm summer days.

I made this for tonight’s meal. It’s very tasty. I did use mint, basil and cilantro. Added spare red bell peppers also.
Thank you
Trina

The sauce for these came out a little bitter for me, but I honestly just think my tahini brand is terrible. Otherwise very satisfying !

This was outstanding! And creamy, indeed. I didn’t have cilantro, so I used parsley. Also out of peanuts, so I used fried onion chips for the crunch factor. I’ve had it with grilled tofu, but I can’t wait to try tempeh too. And Loved how quickly it came together! I can see myself eating this all summer.

This was delicious! The sauce was so good, and the cucumbers added crunch (different from the roasted peanuts) and freshness, as well as the cilantro and green onion. Next time I’ll try with Chinese chives. Thank you for your great recipes!

This was lovely! I usually make a peanut sesame soba noodle salad but wanted to try the tahini-based sauce for a change and it didn’t disappoint. I do find the peanut sesame combo a bit punchier, but I still really enjoyed this one. I added pan-toasted cashews and pan-fried cubed tofu as well as some carrot ribbons.

I have cooked a lot of Minimalist Baker recipes, and love them all. But this one beats them all…so very good! If I could give 10 stars I would. My husband loved it even more. We used a cucumber out of our garden, which made it extra nice.
I used coconut aminos instead of soy sauce.

I didn’t have rice noodles so I used this with a veggie spaghetti noodle. It was a great! It was a perfect meal on a hot, muggy day and it used ingredients I had in my garden. Definitely a keeper!

I made this at home. its test delicious I love it and my family also.

This was a phenomenal recipe! I subbed honey for maple syrup and used mint instead of the cilantro/green onion. It tastes so fresh, it was super easy (took about 15 mins start to finish), and almost all of it was made with pantry staples.