Eating For Your Future/Sesame Noodles with Cucumber Salad

Well, summer is going out with a bang in Chicago. It has been extremely hot the last few days, not Texas, or Arizona hot...but hot for here. Since it is so warm, I have no desire to eat anything too warm, or too heavy. Salads are on the menu!

I actually made the salad I'm posting today a few weeks ago. My husband took one bite and said, "PLEASE make this again!" He loves anything with a peanut sauce :) The recipe is from Smitten Kitchen and you can find it HERE.

Sesame Noodles with Cucumber

3/4 pound dried rice noodles 
2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil, plus a splash to loosen noodles
2 tablespoons Chinese sesame paste or tahini (see note up top)
1 tablespoon smooth peanut butter
3 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons Chinese rice vinegar
1 tablespoon granulated or brown sugar
1 tablespoon finely grated ginger
2 teaspoons minced garlic (from 1 medium-large clove)
Chili-garlic paste, to taste
1/2 pound cucumber, very thinly sliced
1/2 cup roasted salted peanuts, roughly chopped
A handful of chopped fresh herbs, such as mint and cilantro, for garnish

I made a few additions to the recipe;

*I added the juice of 1 lime to the sauce

*Rather than the chili-garlic paste, I chopped up a fresh cayenne pepper

*1 shredded carrot

*1/2 chopped red pepper

*2 cups sliced cherry tomatoes(fresh from my garden)  

*chopped fresh chives

The salad was stirred together, refrigerated for a few hours to allow the flavors to combine and then enjoyed!

Like I said, the salad is amazingly good. Perfect for hot summer days. It will keep well for a few days, so it would be wonderful for lunches too. You could also add chopped fresh spinach to the salad. Be sure to check out the Smitten Kitchen blog as there are a lot of fabulous recipes to be found.
Enjoy!