These red pepper chili crisp noodles are the perfect cozy weeknight dish to welcome fall while still making use of end-of-summer produce. It uses copious amounts of sweet red peppers and scallions!

These chili crisp noodles are the perfect balance of sweet and spicy – there’s both chili crisp and Fresno peppers, which add so much heat, and the sweet red peppers and honey balance out the dish perfectly.

Ingredients for these Red Pepper Chili Crisp Noodles

Ramen noodles: Highly recommend Hakubaku ramen – most stores carry them. The ingredients are super simple, and they taste fantastic.
Extra-firm or high-protein tofu: Highly recommend Hodo Foods extra-firm tofu. Extra-firm tofu (or high-protein tofu) is tofu that’s already been pressed to remove any excess water. Which means denser, meatier tofu that holds its shape and is ideal for stir-fry! Plus, because it’s already pressed, it has a higher protein content than regular tofu.
Sweet red peppers
Scallions, aka green onions
Fresno pepper: This dish is already fairly spicy with the chili crisp, so only add the pepper if you love heat!
Garlic
Ginger
Soy sauce or Bragg’s liquid aminos
Coconut aminos: Yes, you need both soy sauce or liquid aminos and coconut aminos. Liquid aminos are a stand-in for soy sauce and can be used as a 1:1 swap. Coconut aminos, on the other hand, is made by aging coconut tree sap, which yields a product that looks like soy sauce, but has a much glossier (almost syrup-like) texture – the flavor profile is a lot sweeter with caramel notes!
Honey: Coconut sugar or brown sugar are both great substitutes.
Toasted sesame oil
Chili crisp
Rice vinegar or Chinese cooking wine: Not to be confused with mirin, which is different!
Avocado oil
White pepper
Kosher salt

Method Behind This Dish

Preheat the oven to 450°F and line a sheet pan with parchment. Chop the tofu into small cubes, dump onto the tray, generously season with kosher salt, white pepper, and avocado oil, and toss together. Bake for 20-22 minutes or until golden and crisp. NOTE: I typically air-fry the tofu in my toaster oven – it turns out a bit crispier than baking it in the oven.

While the tofu bakes, boil the noodles until soft but still firm. Drain, rinse with cold water, and set aside. Add all of the chili crisp sauce ingredients into a bowl and set aside.

Prep the veggies – thinly slice the red pepper, Fresno pepper (if you’re using it), and scallions. Separate the sliced scallions into two piles – the green tops and the white bottoms. The white bottoms need to be sauteed with the peppers, and the green tops are best left for stirring in at the end.

Dump the peppers, Fresno peppers, bottoms of the scallions, ginger, and garlic into a large pan, along with a generous drizzle of avocado oil. Sauté over medium heat until the peppers are soft. Pour in the chili crisp sauce, increase the heat to high, and let the sauce bubble for 10-15 seconds – the sauce needs to boil a bit so the sugars can caramelize and naturally thicken it.

Lastly, add in the crispy tofu, cooked noodles, scallion tops, and a generous amount of toasted sesame seeds. Toss together, adjust for salt, and serve immediately.

Scaling This Recipe for One, or Many

Typically, I’m cooking for one, so I initially developed this as a single-serve noodle recipe. If you want to keep this single-serve, just cut the recipe in half.

Alternatively, if you’re feeding more than two, there’s a scaling feature on the recipe card. Keep in mind that if you’re cooking larger volumes of peppers and scallions, you’ll need to use a larger pan to avoid overcrowding and steaming the veggies.

Can’t wait for you to make this – it’s a favorite of mine when I want something cozy for dinner! Don’t forget to leave a starred review and rating – love hearing your feedback.