Since I was diagnosed with Crohns disease, I started making a lot more dishes from Asian cultures – a lot less dairy to be found. One of the things that I’ve come to appreciate is that many Chinese recipes are very quick, fairly healthy – and don’t require a lot of energy to make. I call them cut and dump recipes. Enter these pork & peanut noodles!
This recipe is somewhat my own- inspired by a couple of different recipes I’ve learned to make – a peanut noodle recipe and Shanghai noodles.
The toughest item to find is probably the exact noodles. I’ve used dry udon noodles, spaghetti – but my favorite is actual fresh chow mein noodles that I found at my local grocery store (in the refrigerated section next to the fresh pasta). They cook quickly, which helps cut down on your cook time! If you have an Asian grocery store near you, odds are you can find fresh noodles that should be used for shanghai noodles. (If you have wheat allergies, I would recommend substituting with your favorite gluten-free pasta. The noodle should be somewhat firm to the tooth to preserve the texture in the pork & peanut noodles – so this isn’t something that you’d used shirataki noodles for)
If you aren’t a fan of dicing garlic or ginger, there are frozen minced garlic and ginger that I find a great substitute – I wouldn’t use the tubes of paste, however. The flavor will disappear.
And you can swap out the bok choy for any sturdy leafy green. (Or spinach)
Enjoy your noodles!
All in all, making these pork & peanut noodles takes less than 30 minutes (most fresh noodles take only a few minutes to cook, so the longest time investment is waiting for the water to boil and cooking the pork).
I hope you enjoy them!
Pork & Peanut Noodles
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground pork Mine was an 80/20 blend – if your is more lean, you’ll need a cooking oil
- 2 bulbs baby bok choy cut into thin ribbons
- 3 cloves of garlic minced (I like a lot of garlic)
- 1 1/2 inch piece of ginger minced
- 8 oz shanghai noodles prepared as directed (I use udon most of the time, spaghetti also works)
- 1/2 cup reserved hot water from the noodles
- 1/3 cup smooth peanut butter I used Skippy, it’s what we had
- 1/4 cup soy sauce
- 1 Tbsp toasted sesame oil
- 2 Tbsp light brown sugar
- 2 Tbsp rice vinegar
- 1/4 chopped roasted unsalted peanuts
- salt and pepper
Instructions
- Boil water on high heat in a stock pot for the noodles. Cook per the directions and reserve a 1/2 cup of hot water from the pot.
- Heat a nonstick wok or large skillet on medium-high heat.
- When hot, add pork to the skillet. (Note: if your ground pork had less fat, add a little neutral cooking oil to the skillet or wok first) Season with salt and pepper (I used about 1 tsp of kosher salt and a half a teaspoon of salt)
- Break up the pork into small pieces and brown it fully. Drain off all but 1 tbsp of the pork fat.
- While that happens, in a separate bowl, mix 1/4 cup hot water with the peanut butter, soy sauce, sesame oil and rice vinegar. (If you wanted to add a little heat, this is a great place to add a pinch of red pepper flakes) It doesn’t need to be mixed into a smooth sauce.
- Add the garlic and ginger to the pork, mix fully.
- Add the sauce to the pork, toss until it forms a smooth sauce. (Try a piece of pork and adjust as you need to, add a little more brown sugar if you like it sweeter, a little salt if it isn’t salty enough!)
- Add the noodles to the pan, and toss into the sauce. If the sauce is too thick, pour in a little more of the hot water until you get the consistency you want.
- Garnish with chopped peanuts, and that’s it!