Cold Curry-Peanut Noodles

When I was searching for inspiration for the blogger potluck, I was also trying to tidy up the apartment a little bit.  I decided to go through stacks of old Food Network magazines, rip out the recipes that look interesting, add the recipes to my ever-growing recipe book, and recycle the rest of the magazine.  I try to do this kind of purging every few months.  While I was doing this, I found a fantastic recipe for Cold Curry-Peanut Noodles in the June 2010 issue and I thought I'd give it a try.

Since I'd be doing the actual cooking at Megan's place, I prepped as much of the ingredients as possible at home.  I've got to give Bret a lot of credit for helping me out.  I was still getting over the flu and was very slow-moving.  If Bret didn't help me, there is no way this dish would have come together as quickly as it did!

First, I gathered the ingredients:

Crunchy peanut butter, hot red curry paste, and rice wine vinegar.

One cucumber, one carrot, one lime, a bunch of scallions and a bunch of cilantro.

I started by getting the curry-peanut sauce together by adding 2/3 cup crunchy peanut butter, one tablespoon of red curry paste, and a 1/3 cup of cilantro leaves in the food processor.

I added two teaspoons of rice wine vinegar, the juice of one lime, 1/2 cup water, and a pinch of salt to the mixture.  I pureed all of these ingredients until it turned into a smooth sauce.  I put this in a plastic container and set it aside in the fridge to chill.

Bret was a great sous chef and peeled, seeded and thinly cut one cucumber.

He also thinly sliced one large carrot.

Meanwhile I set aside some more cilantro leaves for seasoning.

And I thinly sliced two scallions.

With all my ingredients prepared at home, I didn't have too much to do at Megan's place.  I simply cooked approximately twelve ounces of whole wheat spaghetti and tossed the sauce, vegetables and spaghetti together.  I reserved about a half cup of the pasta cooking water aside and used about a quarter cup of that water in the noodles to help loosen it up.

I also sliced up a lime to squeeze some fresh lime juice onto the noodles upon serving.

This was the first time I've made this dish and it was so easy!  The noodles had more of a peanut flavor than a curry flavor but I liked the small level of heat the curry paste brought to the dish.  I'm definitely going to keep this recipe on reserve for a flavorful, healthy and meat-less dish that takes such little time to prepare.

What is your favorite Asian dish to prepare at home?  Also, don't forget to enter my Dancing Deer giveaway!