A Pasta Salad with Asian flavors is all we needed for our weekend brunch. This Salad has a Spicy Peanut Dressing and is topped with toasted sesame seeds to extra flavor.
The last and final pasta salad for the week is all Asian. I had to include one of the pasta salads that has flavors from one of our favorite cuisines. We all love Thai food and this Pasta salad has all the flavors of a good Thai Peanut noodles minus the cooking part. The vegetables that I have added is what I had at hand. You can add as many different ones or as little as you like and this pasta salad would work either ways.
The Spicy Thai Peanut Dressing is the highlight of this dish. It is so quick to put together and I used a blender to blend everything. Since we love Asian cuisine, I pretty much have all the sauces in my pantry. I just had to cook the spaghetti and add the rest of the ingredients and mix. The Pasta salad is ready to be served right away, or even better, refrigerate it to take it for lunch the next day.
I love cooking for the blog over the weekend as I get to have some extra help around. I have the taste testers ready and waiting to jump in to taste and give their expert opinion and even better, I get a food photographer / stylist with a fresh set of eyes to help plate and take pictures. Below is my son shooting and his picture.
Ingredients and Substitutes
Noodles / Pasta -
If you find fresh noodles around, you can use that to make this salad. I used spaghetti for my recipe as I had it in my pantry. You could also use any dry noodles of your choice or even linguine would work. Since it is an Asian salad, stick to the noodle kind of pasta and not any other shape.
Vegetables -
I used carrot, bell pepper and spring onions with generous amount of cilantro. You could also use broccoli, red onions in the recipe. If using broccoli, cook it for couple of minutes and then add it to the mix.
Dressing -
I used crunchy peanut butter in the dressing. Any kind of peanut butter would work. Along with it soy sauce is a must. I always have a large bottle of sweet chili sauce as my boys love it on all their noodles. If you don't have it, use some brown sugar when blending to add some sweetness.
I don't use a lot of toasted sesame oil as it is pretty strong. If you like the flavor of it, you could add a little more. We really don't need salt in the dressing as soy sauce has enough salt. We love a little spice in our noodles and hence I used crushed red pepper. If you don't like much heat reduce the crushed red peppers or use black pepper instead.
Sesame seeds -
I toasted some sesame seeds to add to the salad for crunch and extra flavor. I used both black and white sesame seed to give some color to the dish as well.
Procedure to make Asian Pasta Salad
To make the Peanut Dressing
- Add all the ingredients mentioned for the sauce in a small blender jar and give it a quick blend until everything is combined. You could mince the garlic finely and also whisk all the ingredients in a bowl. I preferred blending them all together as it is quicker and also gave a even mixture of the dressing.
To make the Salad
- Boil plenty of water and add salt to the boiling water. Cook the pasta until al dente and drain it. Run cold water over the pasta to stop the cooking process and drain.
- Place the drained pasta in a wide bowl.
- Add the grated carrot, chopped bell pepper, cilantro and scallion to the same bowl.
- Pour the dressing over and mix them all together to combine.
- In a small pan, dry roast the sesame seeds until you hear a popping noise. I used both black and white sesame for color and flavor.
- Add the toasted sesame seeds to the salad and mix.
- Serve at room temperature or refrigerate until ready to serve.
More Pasta Salad Recipes
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Asian Pasta Salad
Ingredients
For the Salad -
- Spaghetti - ½ lb
- Carrot - ½ cup grated
- Bell pepper red or green - ½ cup (finely chopped)
- Spring onions - 2 stalks sliced
- Cilantro - about ½ cup finely chopped
- Sesame seeds - 1 TBSP
For the Peanut Dressing -
- Peanut Butter - 1 TBSP
- Soy Sauce - 2 TBSP
- Sweet chili sauce - 2 TBSP
- Toasted sesame oil - 1 tsp
- Garlic - 2
- Rice wine vinegar - 1 TBSP
- Lemon juice - 2 tsp
- Red chili flakes - ½ tsp or as needed
Instructions
To make the Peanut Dressing -
- Add all the ingredients mentioned for the sauce in a small blender jar and give it a quick blend until everything is combined. You could mince the garlic finely and also whisk all the ingredients in a bowl. I preferred blending them all together as it is quicker and also gave a even mixture of the dressing.
To make the Salad -
- Boil plenty of water and add salt to the boiling water. Cook the pasta until al dente and drain it. Run cold water over the pasta to stop the cooking process and drain.
- Place the drained pasta in a wide bowl.
- Add the grated carrot, chopped bell pepper, cilantro and scallion to the same bowl.
- Pour the dressing over and mix them all together to combine.
- In a small pan, dry roast the sesame seeds until you hear a popping noise. I used both black and white sesame for color and flavor.
- Add the toasted sesame seeds to the salad and mix.
- Serve at room temperature or refrigerate until ready to serve.
sasmita says
Such pretty clicks and yes, well explained recipe.
The peanut dressing sounds interesting here and must be adding awesome flavor to the salad.
Jagruti's Cooking Odyssey says
Currently, this peanut pasta salad is HOT favourite in our family, so easy and quick meal which can be done by anyone. Loving the gorgeous pictures!
Priya Srinivasan says
wow sandhya, such a simple and flavorsome salad! love love love that dressing, looks very inviting!!! i would definitely try this for myself whenever i make sloppy noodles for my kids!!!!
Anshu says
Asian food especially the Thai flavors are my absolutely favorite and this pasta salad is loaded with the same yumminess. Going to give it a try tonight only
Padma Veeranki says
I love love peanut dressing...It's been a while I made it, now I'm tempted to make it again...Amazing clicks are doing full justice to the salad...Yum 😋
Jayashree T.Rao says
This Pasta Salad looks flavoursome Sandhya. The toasted sesame and the peanut dressing must have enhanced the taste of the dish. Nice clicks.
Malini says
Well explained recipe. The peanut dressing sounds interesting, it looks so flavorful and yummy. Can't ask more in this salad. Your son did a wonderful job. The styling and picture is perfect.
Mayuri Patel says
Such a tempting plate of spaghetti salad with Asian flavours. Looks so simple and yet flavorful with peanut dressing. Beautiful styling and clicks by your son.
Lata Lala says
A Pasta Salad with Asian flavors sounds awesome. True this could be a perfect brunch option. Spicy Peanut Dressing definitely adds the beautiful flavour to it.
Wowsome share
Lata Lala says
A Pasta Salad with Asian flavors sounds awesome. True this could be a perfect brunch option. Spicy Peanut Dressing definitely adds the beautiful flavour to it.
Woesome share
Leanne - Crumb Top Baking says
I could make a meal on this pasta salad! I've never made a peanut dressing but every time I see one, I want to make it. I think this might be the one. I love the spicy element! And I have all the ingredients in my kitchen right now!
Carina says
This salad sounds so delicious, we eat a lot of pasta and will certainly try your dressing.
Emmeline says
Oh wow, this looks and sounds so good! And easy?! I will definitely save this to try very soon! Love all the flavors you included.
Suma Gandlur says
Your son has captured the dish well, kudos for being eager to help out mom. 🙂 That sure is one flavor loaded dressing to go with pasta. I have been postponing trying this Asian flavored pasta for long and would definitely give your version a try.
Srividhya Gopalakrishnan says
I love this Asian pasta salad. They have one in Safeway kitchens and I remember trying to recreate it. Your son has done an amazing job with the photography. Awesome.
Usha says
Your son did a great job styling and photographing the salad. It is wonderful when you have someone to help you around with both tasting and clicking. Salad looks amazing and am sured tasted great with thai peanut dressing.
Pavani says
This is my kind of salad Sandhya. I love Asian style peanut dressing and this salty, sweet and spicy dressing sounds absolutely delicious.
Harini Rupanagudi says
I used t make this a long time back and we used to love it. I wonder what happened to me that I forgot about this wonderful pasta salad? Many many thanks for the reminder. Kudos to the budding photographer !
Amara says
Wow Sandhya! that's a delicious pasta salad. Love the flavourful dressing you made there. I'm bookmarking it.