The review: Szechuan Noodles

This was WAY better than pizza. And don’t even start on the hot dogs. I’ve said it before, but anything that involves the Cuisinart is fantastic in my book. As usual, I chose the recipe without reading the directions. I actually picked Szechuan noodles because I already had most of the ingredients. Extra bonus: I had some leftover chile rubbed pork in the freezer that I wanted to move. You’ll be noticing a theme this week. It is time to make space in the fridge and freezer for the throngs of people that will be here next week. So let’s use some of those leftovers!

How awesome is a recipe with three steps? First, throw everything for the sauce in the Cuisinart and blend. Check. Boil some pasta. Check. Toss it all together. Yes. I am on board. Don’t be intimidated by the number of ingredients. This is easy.

My recipe didn’t call for chicken or broccoli since I used the recipe in The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook. Everything else is the same as the link above. I substituted left-over pork roast for the chicken, which turned out to be an excellent (and fast) addition. Broccoli sounded like a good idea. Add a green veggie without the extra work. I went ahead and sautéed my broccoli, red pepper, yellow pepper and green onion before tossing it in with the pasta and sesame peanut sauce. I could have doubled the veggies here easily. I only used a small head of broccoli and half each of the peppers even though the online recipe called for whole peppers. There is a reason for this. If you follow the book recipe, you will have more sauce than you need. A lot more sauce. Follow the online version and add more stuff. In fact, add some edamame. Or snow peas. Or both. And cut down on the garlic unless you live near a vampire.

Overall, this is the perfect weeknight meal, especially if you have meat pre-cooked and frozen. Just pop it in the fridge in the morning to defrost and add to your Szechwan noodles at night. Really good. Maybe add a little fresh mint on the top when you serve? I think I might try that next time.