This Spicy Peanut Soba Noodle Salad features red peppers, cabbage, chicken, soba noodles, and a quick homemade spicy peanut sauce. Salads don’t get much yummier than this.
Soba Noodle Salad!
It’s (mildly) spicy. It’s peanutty and noodley. It’s a friend to all vegetables. It’s salad that’s… not really a salad.
It’s got big punchy flavor from fresh garlic and lime juice, and it’s extremely filling thanks to that creamy peanut sauce and the tangled pile of carbs known as soba noodles, and it’s also colorful and crunchy and fresh, so yes, it is my favorite category of food.
Ingredients
For the Spicy Peanut Sauce:
- 5 tablespoons peanut butter
- 5 tablespoons water
- 5 tablespoons soy sauce, or tamari for gluten free
- 2 tablespoons sesame oil (optional – for flavor)
- 2 tablespoons honey
- juice of 1 lime
- 1 clove garlic
- 1/4 cup chili sauce like sriracha (more or less depending on spice tolerance)
- 1/2 cup peanuts
For the Salad:
- 1 lb. chicken breast
- 1 red bell pepper
- 3–4 cups chopped purple cabbage
- 10 ounces soba noodles
- 1/4 cup fresh cilantro or basil to taste
- 1/4 cup crushed peanuts for topping
Instructions
- Spicy Peanut Sauce: Puree sauce ingredients in a food processor or blender. Add the peanuts last so you can control how chunky it is (I like to leave it a little more on the chunky side).
- Chicken: Cook the chicken in a skillet over medium high heat. Season with salt and pepper. When the chicken is cooked through, set aside until cool enough to handle and shred the meat.
- Vegetables: Chop the red pepper, cabbage, and cilantro to your desired size for the salad.
- Noodles: Cook the noodles according to package directions (usually just boiling for a few minutes).
- Assemble: Toss everything together with enough dressing to generously coat everything. Serve hot or cold!