These vermicelli noodle bowls with peanut butter sauce are mega easy to make and ready in about 20 minutes. The base recipe is gluten free, dairy free and vegan, and you can add your favourite protein.
Well guys, it’s taken me about a month to get a new blog post up, which is something I’ve felt really terrible about. I’m doing basically a full time study load at university this semester, and still working in my law job three days a week so…yeah. Time has been so hard to come by! And I’m such a perfectionist that I don’t ever want to put something up on the blog that I’m not completely satisfied with.
I like to think that you’re all a very patient bunch though and you don’t mind me taking my time, so long as the recipes are good, right? I wasn’t so careful when I first started blogging and used to throw everything up as a new blog post as soon as it came out of the oven! Now, it’s like, write the recipe, trial run, weigh everything, test it again, make it pretty, photograph it…and probably a million other steps in there too (especially when the recipe doesn’t work very well the first time!).
Anyway, if you have stuck around, I hope you’ll enjoy these vermicelli noodle bowls with peanut butter sauce. I posted these on my Instagram a few weeks back and had lots of people asking for the sauce recipe. Well, here it is! Honestly, it’s one of the easiest sauces to make and all you need to do is whisk some stuff together in a mug. Plus if you buy the sauce ingredients there’s a heap of other yummy Asian-inspired dishes you can make. I have a few more planned for the blog!
As well as the peanut butter sauce, these vermicelli noodle bowls also feature loads of crunchy vegetables and oodles of noodles, of course. Continuing with the low-effort nature of this recipe, by using super thin vermicelli noodles, all you need to do to prepare them is soak them in water for a few minutes. Chop your veggies while the noodles are soaking and boom! You’re halfway through the recipe.
My favourite way to serve these vermicelli noodle bowls with peanut butter sauce is to top them with poached chicken. However you can definitely mix it up here and use a different protein. The base recipe for the bowls is vegan, so to keep it that way use a vegan protein like tofu or tempeh. My recommendations for proteins to add to this recipe are:
- pan fried firm tofu or tempeh;
- poached or grilled chicken (use chicken breast for poaching, and breast or thigh meat for grilling);
- grilled steak or pork, thinly sliced; or
- crispy pan fried salmon or some pan fried prawns.
So many options! Though, if I can also let you in on a little time-saving, lazy gal tip – when I suddenly decide I want to make these during the week and poaching chicken just seems beyond me, we just use a good old rotisserie chicken picked up from the local supermarket. Our local supermarket has fresh, hot free range chicken available most of the time and I take full advantage of that!
Vermicelli Noodle Bowls with Peanut Butter Sauce
Ingredients
Vermicelli Noodle Bowls
- 60-100 grams dried rice vermicelli noodles
- 3-6 leaves cos lettuce or other similar lettuce
- 1 carrot
- 1 small cucumber (I usually use a lebanese cucumber)
- 1 tomato
- 2 spring onions
- 1 handful mint - optional
- 1 handful roasted cashews or peanuts - optional
- 2 serves protein of choice e.g. chicken, tofu, beef, tempeh
Peanut Butter Sauce
- 3 tbsp crunchy peanut butter
- 1 tbsp tamari or gluten free soy sauce
- 1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
- 1 tbsp maple syrup
Instructions
- If you are adding a protein like chicken, tofu etc. to this dish, start the prep by cooking the protein first, as it is likely to take the longest. I will often poach about 300 grams of chicken breast for these bowls (to be divided between two bowls). To poach chicken breast, bring a saucepan of water to boil with enough water to cover chicken. Add chicken breast (no need to dice or anything) to the boiling water and then reduce heat to very low so the water barely bubbles. Place lid on saucepan and leave to cook for 10-12 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.
- Prepare the vermicelli noodles according to packet instructions. This usually involves soaking the noodles for a few minutes in water.
- While the noodles are soaking, wash and slice up the salad vegetables. Shred the lettuce, dice the cucumber and tomato, and cut the carrot into thin matchsticks. Slice the spring onions.
- Make the peanut butter sauce. Place all sauce ingredients into a mug or small bowl and whisk them together with a fork. Add in a few tablespoons of water (I usually add about 3) and continue to whisk until sauce reaches desired consistency. Taste test - add a little extra of any of the ingredients until it's the perfect flavour for you.
- Time to assemble the bowls. Drain the noodles thoroughly. Arrange noodles and all salad vegetables except spring onion into bowls. Top with protein (sliced up as necessary). Drizzle over peanut sauce and sprinkle over spring onion. If using, add extra garnishes of roasted peanuts/cashews and fresh mint.
Notes
- pan fried firm tofu or tempeh;
- poached or grilled chicken (use chicken breast for poaching, and breast or thigh meat for grilling);
- grilled steak or pork, thinly sliced; or
- crispy pan fried salmon or some pan fried prawns.
I so wish I could print your recipes from my phone. If I hit the print icon, it goes to a copy of the recipe…that visit. Most cooking websites provide a second tiny second print icon at the top of that page but your program doesn’t do that. So sad, because I adore your recipes. (I have a brand new phone and cannot print your recipes from it nor could I from my previous phone)
CATHY
Hi Cathy, I’m so sorry this is happening. I have tried to access my website from my phone (an iPhone) and when I hit “Print Recipe” it opens up a copy of the recipe, but it’s a copy that fits on a single page and then the print dialog box automatically opens up so that I can print that recipe. What does the copy look like for you?