Cold Sesame Peanut Noodles

Ingredients

• 300 g medium noodles
• 90 g smooth peanut butter
• 2 tbsp tahini
• 3 tbsp soy sauce
• 2 tbsp rice vinegar
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 1 tbsp honey or sugar
• 1 garlic clove, grated
• 1 tsp chilli flakes
• 1 cucumber, cut into matchsticks
• 5 spring onions, sliced
• 50 g roasted peanuts, crushed

Method

1. Cook and cool the noodles

   Boil the noodles, then rinse them under cold running water until completely cool and toss with a little sesame oil. Rinsing washes off the starch that would otherwise glue them into a single block in the fridge.

2. Build the sauce

   Whisk the peanut butter, tahini, soy, vinegar, sesame oil, honey, garlic and chilli. It will seize and go stiff before it loosens — that is the tahini, and it comes back.

3. Thin it deliberately

   Add cold water a tablespoon at a time until it just coats a spoon and drips off. Make it slightly looser than looks right; cold noodles absorb sauce and it tightens as it sits.

4. Toss and top

   Toss the noodles through the sauce, then add the cucumber, spring onions and peanuts. Keeps two days, though it will need a splash of water to loosen again.