Vegetables and noodle salad with spicy peanut butter dressing

 Here is another salad! This is such a versatile salad that can be made with any type of pasta, mixed up with a good serving of crunchy vegetables. I love using broccoli slaw, grated red and green cabbage, carrots, snap peas. I usually get a bag of mixed slaw and throw in some broccoli florets in it. But other vegetables like mushrooms, bean sprouts, chestnuts would be great too. What makes it really good is the  creamy, delicious and bursting with flavor peanut butter dressing. Home made peanut butter would taste great, but store bought is just fine. This salad is always a winner and I like the fact that it does not really take much time to prepare. Sometimes I prepare the peanut butter dressing in advance and when I want to make this salad I just boil the pasta, add in the veggies and just before serving mix the dressing.
Recently I made it for a potluck dinner, so I went easy on the heat and used penne pasta as it is much easier to eat than spaghetti. Here is the recipe.






 Ingredients

4 cups boiled penne pasta
1 bag of mixed slaw (red and white cabbage, broccoli, carrots)
 bunch of chopped cilantro
4-6 green onions chopped (white and green parts)
1/4 cup roughly chopped roasted peanuts or cashews
boiled chickpeas or sauteed tofu (optional)

For the peanut butter dressing/sauce

1/4 cup tablespoons peanut butter
2 tablespoon hoisin sauce
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoon rice vinegar
2 tablespoon maple syrup/honey or agave nectar
2 teaspoon or more sriracha sauce
3 tablespoons chili oil or peanut oil
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
2-3 fat cloves of grated garlic
1/4 cup water (add less or more water depending on the consistency you like)
Optional
(1 tablespoon major grey mango chutney Indian mango chunda works well too)

Method

Take the boiled pasta and add a splash of oil so that it does not stick to each other. Toss in the vegetables. To prepare the dressing just mix all the ingredients listed above. If it is too thick then add a tablespoon of hot water and stir. I do not measure everything when I cook, so feel free to add less or more of whatever suits your taste. Pour the dressing over the pasta and mix. Garnish with cilantro, green onions and roasted peanuts or cashews.