Sesame Peanut Soba Noodle Salad

Introducing this insanely easy and sensationally good sesame peanut soba noodle salad with peanut sauce. 

Think crunchy purple cabbage, sweet carrots, edamame and noodles tossed together in a sweet and spicy peanut dressing. Topped with crunchy peanuts, sesame seeds and herbs. 

Like what’s not to love about this easy soba noodle salad. 

Not only is this healthy soba noodle salad easy to make and delicious, it’s also great for meal-prep. 

Soba Noodle Salad Ingredients 

Here’s everything you’ll need for this cold soba noodle salad, along with brands I recommend using. The ingredients you use to cook with are so important for not only the recipe turning out good, but also for your health. 

As always, the full recipe with directions and measurements is in the recipe card below. 

• Soba noodles – love the soba noodle from Lotus Foods
• Edamame – I get the pre-shelled edamame from Whole Foods 
• Carrots 
• Purple Cabbage
• Green onions 
• Cilantro
• Fresh ginger – btw, no need to take off the ginger peel, just wash it really well
• Fresh garlic 
• Sunflower butter or Peanut butter  – I love the unsweetened, unsalted organic sunflower butter from SunButter and Georgia Grinders has amazing peanut butter 
• Amino Acids – usually get these from Bragg 
• Honey – maple syrup also works if you want to make this a vegan soba noodle salad 
• Lemon juice  – or rice vinegar 
• Spices 
• Sesame seeds
• Peanut or cashews – for a crunchy salad topping

How to Make this Soba Noodle Salad

1. Start by cooking the noodles according to package instructions. To save on extra dishes, I like to add the frozen edamame into the noodles to cook 1 minute before the noodles are done. 
2. While the noodles cook, prep the veggies. Pro tip here, make sure the carrots and cabbage are similar in thickness and length (the thinner the better), they taste better in the salad like this. My other tip for shredding carrots is to use a box grated to get them really fine.
3. Add the chopped cabbage and carrots into a shallow bowl, along with the cilantro, green onion. 
4. Next, prep the dressing. Add the peanut butter or sunflower butter into a bowl, along with the honey, amino acids, lemon juice, rice vinegar, garlic, ginger and spices. Give this a good mix. Note that the dressing will almost look like it’s separated, but don’t worry, this is totally normal.
5. Next pour in the water and gently whisk to combine. Continue to whisk until the water is completely mixed into the dressing. If the peanut dressing is still too thick, continue to whisk in tiny amounts of water until it reaches a consistency you like. 
6. Once the dressing has become silky smooth and dark in color, it’s done. Adjust for salt before using! 
7. At this point the noodles should be done. Add the noodles to the bowl and pour over the dressing. 
8. Toss to combine, either using salad hands or your actual hands (which I think get the veggies and noodles coated better in the dressing). 
9. Top with sesame seeds and chopped peanuts (or cashews if you’re allergic to peanuts). Enjoy! 
10. This salad stores really well in the fridge (about 3 days) and tastes amazing as a cold salad for lunch or dinner. 

How to Make the Soba Noodle Salad Dressing

Most salad dressings are packed with calories and unnecessary sugar and oils. But this vegan thai peanut dressing recipe couldn’t be healthier. It’s made with whole-foods and relies on honey to naturally sweeten the dressing. 

Here’s how to make it — it couldn’t be easier. Btw, I did include an individual serving of this recipe in the recipe card below, but if you want to make a lot of this dressing the full recipe is here. 

1. Add the peanut butter or sunflower butter into a bowl, along with the honey, amino acids, lemon juice, rice vinegar, garlic, ginger and spices. Give this a good mix. Note that the dressing will almost look like it’s separated, but don’t worry, this is totally normal.
2. Next pour in the water and gently whisk to combine. Continue to whisk until the water is completely mixed into the dressing. If the peanut dressing is still too thick, continue to whisk in tiny amounts of water until it reaches a consistency you like. 
3. Once the dressing has become silky smooth and dark in color, it’s done. Adjust for salt before using! 

Additional Notes On This Recipe

• Meal-prep this salad and store in the fridge for up to 3 days. This tastes great as a cold lunch that you can for a healthy work or school lunch, or even on a fun picnic. 
• If you’re allergic to peanuts, use sunflower butter and cashews instead in the salad. I actually do this myself as I don’t do well on peanuts and it tastes just as good. 
• If you love spice as much as I do, feel free to grate a small red chili pepper and add it to the dressing or salad greens — transforming this dish into spicy peanut soba noodles. 
• Ok, last thing, to up the protein even more in this sesame peanut soba noodles, feel free to add in some crispy tofu or shredded chicken breast. 

Even More Vegan Salad Bowls

• Crunchy Thai Peanut Salad 
• Herby Lemon Pasta Salad
• Classic Garden Salad with Creamy Balsamic Vinaigrette

Print