Author Notes
I’ve been intrigued by zucchini noodles for awhile now, and while we were in Adelaide there was an abundance of zucchinis in Alex’s mother’s garden, so I jumped at the chance to experiment. Peanut sauce is one of my all time favourite sauces, so I decided to give a homemade version a shot. Here’s what you’ll need for this recipe- confession though, I did the sauce to taste so these are informed guesses in amounts, I would recommend using these as a loose guideline and trusting your tastebuds! —boymeetsgirlmeetsfood
Continue After Advertisement
Ingredients
-
5
zucchinis, ends trimmed off
-
1/4 cup
crunchy no sugar/no salt added peanut butter, plus 1 tbsp to taste
-
3 tablespoons
soy sauce
-
3 tablespoons
rice wine vinegar
-
2 tablespoons
sesame oil
-
2/3 teaspoon
palm sugar
-
1
clove garlic, crushed
-
1/4
small red onion, cut into large chunks
-
2 cm cube
ginger, thinly sliced
-
1-2
birds eye chilies, depending on spice preference
-
2
juiced limes
-
1/2 bunch
cilantro, washed and roughly chopped
Directions
-
Start by using a mandolin to julienne the zucchini. Mandolins can be quite dangerous, so always be sure to use the safe guard provided! I julienned the zucchini straight into a large bowl, tossing occasionally to separate.
-
Once the zucchini noodles are ready, set about making your sauce. To begin, combine 3 heaping tablespoons of peanut butter with 2 tablespoons of soy sauce, along with the garlic, ginger, chilies, palm sugar, juice from one lime and a drizzle of sesame oil. Blend this until smooth, and then add a generous splash of the rice wine vinegar, the rest of the peanut butter and the juice from the other lime. Continue the process of blending, tasting and adding until you settle on a peanut sauce that suits your taste buds- it should be peanutty, a little bit sweet, tangy and have plenty of spice. I didn’t find that the sauce needed any extra salt due to the soy sauce, but if necessary feel free to add some salt and pepper. You will find that the peanut sauce is quite thick, so add about 1/4 of a cup of water, and give the mixture one final blend. The result should be a frothy, delicious peanut sauce, just thin enough to coat the noodles nicely.
-
Toss the peanut sauce with the noodles, and top them with some freshly chopped cilantro and a bit of lime.
-
Done! Your zucchini noodles are ready to serve. I found that these were a great introduction to raw meals, and that even the raw skeptics (cough Alex cough) were impressed!
See what other Food52ers are saying.