Name: 5-Ingredient Peanut Noodles
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 20 min
Yield: 4
Ingredients: 1 tbsp. sesame oil, divided; 16 oz. bag coleslaw mix (cabbage, carrots, red cabbage); 1/4 tsp. kosher salt; 3/4 lb. thick spaghetti; 1/3 cup hoisin sauce; 1/4 cup creamy peanut butter; 1/4 cup + 1/8 cup water

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These 5-Ingredient Easy Peanut Noodles are SO easy, and oh-so good. Thick spaghetti noodles are smothered in a hoisin-based peanut sauce, and tossed with a medley of cabbage and carrots for a delicious meal that comes together in minutes.

5-Ingredient Easy Peanut Noodles

It’s five-ingredient Friday, and I’m pretty excited about. I’m also excited because easy peanut noodles are by far, one of my favorite Asian dishes to eat, so the fact that we’ve simplified a notoriously ingredient-heave recipe down to just five measly ingredients is reason to celebrate.

The five ingredients in our 5-Ingredient Easy Peanut Noodles are as follows:

Thick spaghetti or lo mein. I love to go to Asian markets and find all kind of fun noodles. For this recipe I used an egg noodle similar to spaghetti, but of course you can just regular spaghetti. If your grocery store has lo mein noodles or any type of asian egg noodle, use those, you won’t regret it!

Hoisin sauce. Hoisin sauce is such a great condiment. It has tons of Asian ingredients in it including soy sauce, garlic, soybeans, honey, and chiles – although every variation is different. It’s a great thing to use for a 5-ingredient recipe since it is so complex.

Peanut butter. Can’t have easy peanut noodles without peanut butter! I don’t even use a natural peanut butter, any run-of-the-mill creamy peanut butter will work great.

Coleslaw. This may seem like an odd ingredient, but it’s perfect for Asian dishes since it includes lots of shredded cabbage, carrots, and red cabbage. And I like A LOT of cabbage, so this recipe reflects that. If you want to decrease it or increase it, feel free to do so. I also love that it cuts out a lot of the work since all the vegetable are shredded prior.

Sesame oil. If you’ve never used sesame oil before, it has a lovely nutty flavor to it, and I use it in just about every Asian recipe we have on the website.

How to make 5-Ingredient Peanut Noodles

Boil the water. Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil. Season liberally with salt.

Cook the veggies. As the water comes to a boil, heat a large skillet to a medium heat. Add coleslaw mix and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Saute until softened, about 5 minutes.

Cook the noodles. Add noodles to the pot and cook until they are aldente.

While the noodles cook, continue to cook the veggies.

Make the sauce. Add hoisin, peanut butter, and water to a medium bowl. Set aside.

Toss everything together. Once the noodles are cooked, use tongs to add them to the coleslaw mixture, reserve cooking water. Add sauce. Toss to combine. If needed, add more pasta water to loosen sauce up. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Substitutions and Tips and Tricks for Recipe Success

Even though the recipe won’t technically be five ingredients anymore, feel free to add sautéed chicken, shrimp or beef to the mix.
Swap out any type of vegetable for the coleslaw. Snow peas, water chestnuts, red peppers, or baby corn would be great substitutions.
Don’t overcook the vegetables, if you do, they can sometimes disappear into the sauce. You want them nice and soft, but still with a bit of texture to them.
As mentioned before, double the amount of veggies or reduce it if all your want are easy peanut noodles without a lot of extra stuff.
If you can find lo main noodles, use those! Soba noodles or even whole-wheat spaghetti would also work great.

Do they Reheat Well?

YES! They are SO good the next day, but they’re also really great cold or served at room temp. In fact, I snacked on these right out of the fridge for three days straight.

Where can I find hoisin sauce?

You should be able to find hoisin sauce at any grocery store. It’s always in the Asian isle in a tall jar. It keeps FOREVER, so don’t worry about using only a little, there are plenty of other recipes you can use it for, like our Chicken Peanut Burgers and our 3-ingredient peanut sauce.

What to serve with 5-Ingredient Noodles