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A quick and easy Sesame Noodle Salad Recipe. Enjoy lukewarm or cold, either way, this Asian side dish is packed full of delicious flavor.
This Sesame Noodle Salad is an older recipe of mine that I recently updated. There is a lot of chopping, but it’s totally worth the labor of love. These noodles are so so good and if you don’t have a huge family, you’ll be able to enjoy them for days! {Or just hide them in the back of your fridge without telling a soul. Not that I speak from experience or anything. The longer they sit, the tastier they get.
Sesame Noodle Salad
As mentioned before, there is a lot of chopping involved with this recipe but it is going to be so worth it! You’ll have a healthy, tasty and filling dish for a main or side. Here’s what you’ll need:
- Whole Wheat Spaghetti – these will be our noodles for the salad.
- Red Pepper – you can use another color of pepper if you’d like, just know that they have slightly different tastes.
- Savoy Cabbage – this has a milder flavor compared to a regular napa cabbage. You can use either here.
- Green Onions – great subtle onion taste.
- Cilantro – for garnish and for taste.
- Carrots – a great source of beta carotene and color in this dish.
- Cashews – this is for a crunchy, nutty topping.
- Ramen Noodles – another element of crunch, just use the plain kind here.
Dressing
Here’s what you’ll need for the dressing.
- Garlic – oh delicious garlic flavor…
- Ginger – a super important flavor for any Asian dish.
- Soy Sauce – to add umami and saltiness.
- Brown Sugar – to balance out acidity and salt.
- Sesame Oil – this is where that sesame flavor comes from.
- White Wine Vinegar – you can also use rice vinegar or plain white vinegar.
- Canola Oil – or any other light oil.
- Salt and Pepper – to taste!
How to Make Sesame Noodle Salad
- Combine all ingredients for dressing first.
- Cook spaghetti until al dente- you want it to be chewy, not soft and mushy. Drain pasta and toss with half of the prepared dressing while it’s still warm. Set aside.
- In a large bowl toss all chopped vegetables together. Add in cooked spaghetti and mix. Pour in remaining dressing and toss to coat. At this point, it all should be luke warmish. It’s really good like this, or you can refrigerate it until its cold.
- So, once you’re ready to eat, top the salad with crushed ramen and cashews.
Tips and Tricks
Leftovers
If you know your family won’t eat the whole dish in one sitting, don’t top the entire thing with the ramen and cashews. They will get soggy and mushy and gross in the salad overnight and eating it the next day isn’t all that delectable… unless you like soggy and mushy things, in which case you can ignore this whole thing.
You can store this dish, sealed in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. The longer it sits the better it tastes, just don’t wait too long!
More Recipes to Try!
- Pan Fried Sesame Butternut Squash Noodles
- Chinese Chicken Salad Recipe
- Asian Chicken & Orzo Salad
- 15 Minute Chow Mein Recipe
- Chinese Chop Salad
Printable recipe card is below! Have a good day friends!
Sesame Noodle Salad
Ingredients
- 3/4 lb whole wheat spaghetti
- 1 red pepper julienned
- 1/2 head savoy cabbage shredded
- 3 green onions chopped
- 1/3 cup cilantro chopped
- 1 large carrot peeled and julienned
- 1/4 cup cashews toasted and chopped
- 1/2 package ramen noodles crushed
for the dressing:
- 2 cloves garlic finely minced
- 1 tablespoon ginger finely minced
- 3 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons sesame oil
- 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar or plain white vinegar would work too
- 1/4 cup canola oil or any other light oil
- salt
- pepper
Instructions
- Combine all ingredients for dressing first.
- Cook spaghetti until al dente- you want it to be chewy, not soft and mushy. Drain pasta and toss with half of the prepared dressing while it is still warm. Set aside.
- In a large bowl toss all vegetables together. Add in cooked spaghetti and mix. Pour in remaining dressing and toss to coat. At this point, it all should be luke warmish. It's really good like this, or you can refrigerate it until its cold.
- So, once you're ready to eat, top the salad with crushed ramen and cashews.
I’ve made this a couple of times and both times were really good I punched it up a notch by adding a couple of tablespoons of sweet chili sauce to the noodles for kick of sweet spice. Another time I’ve added a couple of tablespoons minced dried pineapple-SO GOOD!
Hi could I use bean sprouts instead of noodles?? Thx
This was DELICIOUS! We had it for lunch, I was planning on having leftovers tomorrow, but my husband said “let’s have the rest for dinner and add chicken” – clearly he thought it was a hit, too!
Is it possible to get your lemon cookie recipe? I think they may be crinkly lemon cookies??
Here ya go: https://laurenslatest.com/lemon-crinkle-cookies/
I’ve had this before & it’s delicious! I’m gonna try my own batch.
Use this recipe so often I’ve bookmarked it, pinned it and sent a copy to my daughter.
Making this tonight with some chicken on the side. Can’t wait. Couldn’t find the cabbage the recipe called for so I just grabbed regular cabbage.
Such a delicious salad! To speed up prep, I use a small bag of prepackaged coleslaw mix in place of the cabbage and sub in a handful of matchstick carrots for less chopping.. Yummy!
My roommate and I made this and packed it for lunch all week! It’s so much tastier than a boring sandwich and worked for multiple days of meal prep. My trick was adding sautéed mushrooms for an extra veggie. Loved it!
Looks sod yummy! I’ll have to try these soon!
This looks delish. I look forward to trying it.
One of my favorites! Thank you
Cant wait to try this. I love sesame noodle salad and this looks like a good recipe.
I can’t stop eating this and neither can anyone else I serve it to! Thank you Lauren!
Looks yummy. …… I have to try it 🙂
Thank you for this recipe. I plan to make it this weekend for company. Yum!
This looks amazing! My family is always trying to find new recipes to bring to our “take out from home” nights. I’m definitely going to try this.
This was a big hit and so easy!
I tried this a couple of months and loved it! Even my picky son liked it which was shocking!
Looks yummy! Could one use seasoned rice vinegar (w/roasted garlic) just as well?
If you like the taste of the rice vinegar, then yes! Will totally work.
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[…] initially wasn’t planning on being lazy….I was totally going to make the dressing from this recipe but didn’t have ginger, garlic or sesame oil. I’m REALLY good at planning ahead. Can […]
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Delicious! Been making on Monday’s fior a few days lunch
This is the yummiest salad ever! I have the pickiest eaters at my home and I make this almost every week. That’s how much we love it!!♥️
Oh WOW! This salad is G.O.O.D!!! I first had it back in March of this year when my future mother-in-law made it for dinner. I liked it so much I asked her where she found it and she told me about this website. I then made this from my family and for my sister’s family and since I’ve been married for the last 4 months, I’ve made it for my husband and for company. Every time I make it people just rave about how good it is and it is one of my husband’s favorite meals! Thank you so much for sharing this one! It is a winner in our home for sure!
[…] 13. Cold Sesame Noodle Salad (Lauren’s Latest) […]
Yum – thank you
You could substitute with 1/8 teaspoon ground ginger.
could you use ground ginger? Looks awesome! Thanks!
Yum! Thank you.
[…] initially wasn’t planning on being lazy….I was totally going to make the dressing from this recipe but didn’t have ginger, garlic or sesame oil. I’m REALLY good at planning ahead. Can […]
Lauren brought me over a bunch of this to try, and I did…with the intent of sharing with Tony when he got home from work, but ALAS I happily ate the whole thing. SO YUMMY!!! Asian tasting noodles and sauce but with fresh light veggies…MAN. Tony was jealous so she wonderfully made him his own the next day. Thanks Lo! A great recipe!