Spicy Cold Noodles

This spicy cold noodle recipe is inspired by Szechuan Dan Dan noodles. But it's been simplified with ingredients that can be easily found in your local grocery stores. It is a delicious and easy-to-make noodle dish that is perfect for a BBQ party or a picnic gathering in the park in summer. It can be served as a salad or a main starch dish. This spicy cold noodle recipe also makes a great potluck idea and is sure to hit the spot.

Jump to:

• Ingredients
• Instructions
• Serving and storage suggestions
• Spicy Cold Noodles

Ingredients

To make this easy spicy cold noodles you'll need spaghetti, Lao Gan Ma chili crisp, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, Chinese black vinegar, green onion/scallion, ginger, garlic, sesame oil, white sesame seeds, cooking oil, roasted peanuts, leafy greens of your choice and cilantro.

Notes and Variations

• Choice of noodle. I used regular spaghetti, but you can use buckwheat noodles, soba noodles, but follow package directions and know texture might be slightly different!

• Leafy greens of your choice. I use soy bean sprouts. You can also use Bok Choy or English cucumber. If English cucumber is your choice, peel and shred it and serve raw.

• Nuts vs. nut-free. I like to use wok/pan fried peanuts. You can make it yourself by following this how to or buy roasted peanuts from your local grocery stores. Fried peanuts and sesame seeds add nutty flavor to this recipe. You can substitute this with pine nuts, walnuts, cashew nuts if you wish. To go nut-free, you can use pumpkin or sunflower seeds, or just leave the nuts out and make the recipe as written.

Instructions

Prepare the fried peanuts

Wok fried peanuts: this step is tricky, it is easy to over-cook the peanuts. Tip: use low heat & keep stirring continuously. Here is a good how to.

Crush the fried peanuts. If you make fried peanuts yourself, let them cool down completely before crushing. Use a Ziploc bag and a rolling pin to crush peanuts to small chunks.

Toast the sesame seeds on the stove

I prefer toasted sesame seeds than raw ones for this recipe. Toasted seeds enriches the nutty flavor brought by fried peanuts. You can buy already toasted sesame seeds from your local stores or follow this detailed step-by-step instructions to get perfect crunchy toasted sesame seeds.

Simplified steps: take a non-stick fry pan, heat it over low heat, low heat is easy to control to avoid over-toast. When the pan is hot (put a hand over the pan, you can feel the heat), add in the sesame seeds, shake the pan over the heat frequently till sesame seeds slightly turn golden brown and aroma comes out. Then quickly transfer the seeds out to a plate to cool down completely.

Make the sauce base

Take a bowl, mix together the light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, Chinese black vinegar, chopped scallion, minced ginger, minced garlic, Lao Gan Ma chili crisp, sesame oil and roasted sesame seeds.

Heat the fry pan or wok over low to medium heat, add 3 tablespoon of cooking oil, when the oil gets hot, turn off the heat. Pour the hot oil to the sauce base. Be careful of handling the hot oil.

Cook the spaghetti

Bring a pot of water to a boil, add a pinch of salt and a drop of oil, cook the spaghetti to al dente (follow package directions). When the spaghetti is one or two minutes away from done, add in the soy bean sprouts to blanch. Cook for the remaining time, then drain well the spaghetti and soy sprouts. Tip: depending on the leafy vegetable you choose, you might need to adjust the timing to add in the vegetable to blanch.

Assemble the spaghetti

Take a big bowl, add cooked spaghetti and soy bean sprouts, add crushed peanuts, top with chopped cilantro, add generously a few spoons of the sauce base to the noodles, stir to combine. Mix well.

Serve and Enjoy!

Serving and storage suggestions

Store the left over sauce in the fridge. Good for 2-3 days.

Serve the sauce over steamed rice and a side of sautéed veggies for a complete meal everyone will love!

If you like this recipe, don't forget to try out my other hot and spicy noodle recipes: