Firey Szechuan Peanut and Chili Zucchini Noodles.
I made us the bestest lunch today.
Or maybe it’s your dinner and then lunch tomorrow. Oh yeah, that should be they way it goes. Like you can eat the pasta warm (or not, whatever you prefer) tonight for dinner and then have it cold tomorrow for lunch.
Two meals, made in 20 minutes or less?!? I know it’s cheesy and all, but I have to say, that is totally “killing two birds with one stone”. Kind of perfect for these busy summer days, huh??
YUP.
SO, let’s talk about this zucchini pasta thing. How do you guys feel about it? Personally, I love the idea of making zucchini and other veggies in pasta form, like that is so fun, but with that said, it’s not really a meal to me without some carbs. You know?
Especially with zucchini noodles, zucchini has a pretty high water content.
I feel like it’s just more of a side, and that’s totally cool if you can deal with that, but I just can’t. For me to make this zucchini pasta more like a meal you better believe I am adding real pasta into the mix…
But wait, doesn’t that defeat the purpose of the whole zucchini pasta thing?? Maybe, but hey, I am definitely using less pasta, so I’d say it’s still a win.
So yes, while most of those pretty noodles you see are in fact zucchini noodles, I added some pasta in there as well.
More important than the noodles is the sauce that goes on this pasta/noodle bowl (not sure whether I like calling these pasta or noodles…hmm).
Back when I first started cooking I made Ina Garten’s schezwan noodles and impressed my dad so much that to this day, it is still one of my favorite meals to make. Since then I have changed the recipe quite a bit, since that’s just kind of what I do. I usually leave out the chicken since no one really cares much for it in this recipe. I feel like it just gets lost in the mix of noodles and sauce, and let’s be honest, the noodles and sauce are really where its at.
*Sidenote, is anyone else semi in awe of Ina? Cause I totally am. If I had all the time in the world. I would be watching Barefoot Contessa 24/7. So much one can learn from that show…ok and I want her kitchen some day too!
*Sidenote over – So the secret to this recipe is the sauce. This sauce + veggies, talk about healthiness!
I like using a mix of peanut butter and tahini + some really good chili oil, some toasted sesame oil, oh and honey. The honey really balances the spicy flavors and makes the sauce extra special…trust me on this. If you are vegan, you can sub in brown sugar. Speaking of which, I just realized that I actually made a vegan AND gluten-free friendly meal. Like whoa!
The whole recipe comes together in twenty minutes or less, it’s completely no-bake and almost completely no-cook (you have to boil the pasta, but that’s it). You make the sauce in the same bowl you are going to toss the pasta in and then you are kind of done.
See, this dish is REALLY easy, and it makes leftovers for lunch at work tomorrow. Heck yes!!
AND it’s healthy, AND so good! No really, these firey schezwan peanut and chili zucchini noodles are so delicious, peanut noodles are maybe one of my favorites though. Peanut butter, peanuts, basil, noodles?
Yeah, so much to love right there!
Also, in case you were wondering, those flowers you see in my noodles are actually edible, I swear! They grew on my cilantro plants, which are growing like crazy! YES!
Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Firey Schezwan Peanut and Chili Zucchini Noodles.
By halfbakedharvest
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: American, Asian
Keyword: peanut, Schezwan, spicy, zucchini noodles
A super tasty lunch
Ingredients
- 1/2 pound spaghetti/linguine or sub more zucchini for gluten free if needed
- 1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
- 1/4 cup tahini sesame seed paste
- 2 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons honey use brown sugar if vegan
- 2 tablespoons lime juice
- 1 tablespoon hot chili oil*
- 2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil*
- 1/4 cup coconut milk lite or regular
- 3 medium size zucchinis spiralized using a veggie spiralizer
- 1/2 cup roasted peanuts finely chopped
- 2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds
- 1 cup fresh basil chopped
- 1/2 cup fresh cilantro chopped
- 6 baby bell peppers sliced
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes halved
- 1 hot pepper sliced (red or green both work)
Instructions
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Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook the pasta until al dente. Drain and keep pasta hot.
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Meanwhile, combine the peanut butter and tahini in a large serving bowl and whisk until combined. Whisk in the soy sauce, honey, lime juice, hot chili oil, toasted sesame oil and coconut milk.
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To the bowl, add the zucchini noodles, peanuts, sesame seeds, basil, cilantro, baby bell peppers and tomatoes. Now add the hot pasta. Toss well to combine. The hot pasta should warm the peanut sauce and make it easier to coat the noodles.
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Pasta can be served warm or cold. Top with hot pepper slices, basil and peanuts if desired. EAT!
Recipe Notes
*If you do not have hot chili oil, just add 1 tablespoon oil (peanut, sesame or olive) + 1-2 teaspoons crushed red pepper flakes). **If you do not have toasted sesame oil, just add peanut or sesame oil in it's place...but the toasted sesame oil adds SO much great flavor. ***If you do not have a spiralizer just thinly slice the zucchini into matchsticks.
Thursday noodles? Yes, but with a fork…chopsticks just don’t give me a big enough bite.
agreed- zucchini/squash/carrot/whatever noodles are never true noodles to me. i just imagine it’s a salad, though i love your idea to do part pasta, part veggies.
ina is great- watched her for an hour yesterday while doing cardio and it was great. i’d be so happy if they played cooking shows all day instead of the newest competition show, sigh.
This sounds amazingly delicious! I bought a spirlazer last spring and still have not used it but I also have zucchini in abundance so I’mgonna try this today maybe with some carrot spirals instead of pasta. . . Thank you for your inspiration!
Sounds so savory and delicious Tieghan! Time to break out the spiralizer! Have a great weekend!
I love your recipes, but “firey schezwan?” “Schezwan” isn’t really one of the accepted spellings of that word and as far as I know, “fiery” is only spelled one way.
I LOVE this idea! Zucchini noodles are great, but when we cook them, I always end up with a bowl full of watered down “pasta.” I love that you kept them raw here! Pinned!
The combination of zucchini noodles and real pasta sounds much more satisfying than just veg. You could also say you’re “getting two birds stoned at once.”
This flavour looks PERFECT! Ah!! Totally crushing on that sauce!
Looks delicious!!! Love the photo!
This bowl looks wonderful but every bowl looks amazing –all those fresh ingredients.
I love zucchini noodles but am getting tired of the craze. This recipe looks amazing and I really like that it’s part regular noodles and part zoodles.
Enjoy eating all those carbs while you’re young and your metabolism doesn’t care! I am past that point, so if I eat pasta for dinner it shows up on the scale 2 days later.
This looks delish and we are currently obsessed with our spiralizer! Love this for the hot days we’ve been having here Tieghan!
I know everyone else is commenting this, but I love how you used both zoodles and regular pasta!! I like having just zoodles when I want something light but the regular pasta definitely makes it more satisfying / filling! 🙂 And also I just wanted to say that your photos keep getting more and more lovely!!
I am new on the spiralizer bandwagon and am falling in love. However, I agree about really wanting carbs to make it a full meal. Currently I’m adding fresh croutons or a crusty piece of bread to my spiralized salads to round out the meal. I like the idea of half pasta! 🙂
Oh yum! That sounds awesome!!
Thanks Julie!! 🙂
Your photos of your dishes always look SO incredible, I am blown away every time! You are so talented! I love your site and I look at it every day, and I have made so many things – all delicious. Thank you for what you do! Keep it up!!
Oh my gosh, THANK YOU! You are so kind!!!
This is a wonderful recipe Tieghan and the combination of flavors are superb. I just love those little peppers and use them all the time.
Thanks so much! And I know, I love those peppers too! 🙂
This sounds and looks so heavenly! I love making spiralized zucchini noodles (though I just peel them), but I agree, you need something else to make it a real meal! This is so on my To-Make list!
xx Sydney
Thanks so much, Sydney!! 🙂
O my goodness, gracious. I am so glad I found your website. Its such a breath of fresh air. You are a genius in the kitchen. Your recipes are amazingly delicious. I love the fact that you have veggie and meat dishes. I would definitely stand in line for your cookbook.?
And you’re an Ina Garten fan, grow and raise veggies, some animals?!!!! ?
Awe!! THANK YOU!!
Honestly, you are the sweetest and totally made my night. Let me know if you ever have any questions!! 🙂
This looks amazing! Cannot wait to pull out my spiralizer and get going on some zucchinis!
♥ Heather
Thank you so very much! Hope you had a great day!
This is PERFECT! I’ve been looking for a peanut zoodle recipe for the longest time!
Thank you so much, Cassie!!
Best lunch ever! Love the mix of noodles and zucchini, so good!
Thank you so much, Laura! Hope you are having a great week!
Such a fun recipe Tieghan… I love any sort of peanut sauce! I think I may have to invest in a spiralizer 🙂
Thank you!! Have a great weekend!
Yay to noodles in every form and in every meal! Well maybe most meals. And I love the fiery-ness of this dish!
Thanks Jessie!! 🙂
Anything that has the word “firey” in it immediately makes me want to dive right in, even if I suffer later! I completely agree about zucchini noodles, they are fun and cute but just not substantial enough to keep me full for long. I love the combination of both, what a brilliant idea!
I love the pasta and zucchini noodle combo!! Anything that’s spicy and contains a peanut sauce is a winner in my book.
Plus, your photos = amazing!
Awe, thank you so much! I hope you have a fun weekend, Brittany! 🙂
It looks incredibly tasty! I have seen these zucchini noodles everywhere recently, really should give it a go sometime.
You should, they are so good and fun! Thanks!
This dish looks so insane – love that sauce and the zoodles! And heck yes to Ina, she is like the new Martha, watching her is just as good as a yoga session (haha) so calming <3
right?!? I could not agree more! Thanks Jessie! Have a fun weekend! 🙂
I made this for my family this weekend. We were craving a light dinner and it was perfect. Rather than use linguine, I added Udon noodles. I used less hot chili oil to acommodate our palates. I was able to get farm fresh zucchini from the farm down the street from my parents’ house as well as picked tomatoes, basil and cilantrol from our garden. And I used fresh ground peanut butter from whole foods. It was their first time with “zoodles” and my parents and brother absolutely loved it. Leftovers were consumed for lunch the next day. Thanks for the amazing recipe!
What spiralizer do you have? I am looking to get one but there are so many out there!
Hi! I use the Paderno spiralizer and I like it a lot. You can buy it here.
Thanks!
I made this for dinner party tonite and it was outstanding! Everyone thought it was the best and went for second and third helpings and then cleaned me out of all my leftovers (the little that were actually left!). The favors combination was superb! This is the first thing I have made from your website, but will definitely have to try more since you seem to have some neat and unusual flavor combos. My only change to this was to substitute rice noodles for the pasta. It was amazing – a total make again!
This looks amazing. I’m pretty sure this is lunch tomorrow!
I so admire what you do, and even though I don’t know you personally, somehow I’m very happy for you that you found your niche and are doing what you love, plus you’re good at it! But I have to ask why you allowed an Australian company to claim that you used their products when making this? They don’t ship to USA, and I find it unlikely that they sent you a few glass jars just so you could whip up this hot dream food just for them to put it on their Instagram feed. Perhaps you’re not even aware, or did you give them permission? Well, it backfired because I’m not buying their products any more. It seems deceitful of them to use someone in another country just because your recipes look so lovely. It’s not authentic. You are not their target market.
hi Silva!
Thank you so much for your beyond kind words, I am SO flattered!!
I actually do not know what it is you are talking about, I did not give permission.
Thanks,
Tieghan!
Thanks for taking the time to reply!
Urgh! This is what I hate about Instagram: the falseness! Even though they tagged you in the comment under your photo (of your fantastic food) that they posted in their feed, it must not have been obvious or easy for you to find out about it. Mayver’s foods claimed your dish was made with their ingredients, but clearly they were not truthful. Sad. Whatever happened to ethics? – IG seems to be perfect for those lacking honesty & has no monitoring. Sorry to have bothered you? but maybe you want to call them on it…
Or just lets focus on the positives: Looking forward to more of your great culinary creations!
Tieghan, your recipe is a definite must!! I have it earmarked for one of my dinners this week. Another vegetable one could add to this dish is Thai eggplant. They look very similar to tomotillo except they have a thick stem. It simply adds more Asian flavour to your dish.
Chris
Thank you so much, Chris!! 🙂
This was so delicious and easy to make! Thanks for a great recipe!
Yum! Winner! Not sure what makes it Sichuan other than the double dose of chilli but it’s a tasty dish. Has a Thai flavour about it with the peanuts, coconut milk and lime. I love the freshness and especially an delicious way to devour the zucchini harvest. I added garden Thai basil and shredded bell peppers.
Thank you so much, so happy you loved it!!
So good! But do you have any tips for what I can substitute the coconut milk with?
HI! You can use whole milk, heavy cream, or another nut based milk. Please let me know if you have other questions. Hope you love this recipe! Thanks! 🙂
I Love peanut butter and chillies too
Thank you!
I adore Ina…but I ADORE you. I have all Ina’s cookbooks. I get your amazing recipes and photos via social media. Many of your recipes suite my dietary wants, needs, & desires.
You’re so sweet! Thank you so much René!
This was really good. Loved the sauce. I only used zucchini noodles – no pasta. And served it cold – my husband’s idea. It was great. I made too much so had it for lunch the next day. It held over really well.
Thank you so much Shelley! I am so glad this turned out amazing for you! xTieghan
So good
Thanks! xTieghan
Fantastic blend of flavors, and easy to make.
Thank you so much Sandy! I am so glad you loved this! xTieghan
Super easy, super tasty, super fresh! Will definitely be making this again. I pretty much exclusively use your recipes for cooking anymore! They never disappoint!
Thank you so much Darcy! I am so glad this turned out so well for you! xTieghan
Added crushed Sichuan peppercorns and garlic, only then was this fiery, tingling, decent. Thanks for the inspiration.
Thank you Christina! I am really glad this turned out so well for you! xTieghan