Easy Wins
Award-winning and bestselling cook Anna Jones gives her golden rules for easy wins in the kitchen with super-simple recipes that are bursting with flavour and kind to the planet.
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Sesame and chilli oil noodles
Lucky and Joy is a Chinese-influenced restaurant local to me with brightly painted walls and food that slaps you in the face with flavour. For the last year or so I’ve been eating their sesame noodles most weeks. This is a quick version of cold sesame noodles I made when I was craving them but they were shut for a holiday. It uses tahini as opposed to Chinese sesame, which is not traditional in any way, but it is what I always have at home so...
- Duration
- Under 20 minutes
- Serves
- 2 as a main, 4 as a side
Ingredients
For the noodles
- 150g medium dried egg / soba/ udon/ rice noodles
- 1 tablespoon peanut butter
- 2 tablespoons tahini
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce or tamari
- 1 clove of garlic, peeled and finely chopped
- 2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
- 2–3 tablespoons chilli oil or chilli crisp
- a bunch of spring onions (about 6), trimmed and finely sliced
- 4 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds (white, black or both)
Cook the noodles
Cook 150g of your choice of noodles in boiling salted water for a minute less than the packet instructions, until al dente. Drain and rinse under cold water.
Make the tahini sauce
Whisk together 1 tablespoon peanut butter, 2 tablespoons tahini, 1 tablespoon soy sauce and 1 finely chopped clove of garlic. Add 2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil and between 75ml and 125ml of room-temperature water (depending on the thickness of the tahini) and whisk until smooth.
Toss together and serve
Toss the cold noodles in the tahini sauce and scoop into bowls, then top each with 1–2 tablespoons of chilli crisp, adding a little at a time until it’s the right kind of heat for you (you can always serve extra on the table). Scatter over a trimmed and finely sliced bunch of spring onions and finish each bowl with a tablespoon of toasted sesame seeds.
Additional information
As featured in
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