Asian Peanut Pasta

Asian Peanut Pasta

When Jon said the other day that he needed comfort food for dinner, I immediately thought of this asian peanut pasta dish. It’s inspired by a dish that one of our good friends made for us one night, and now it makes regular appearances for dinner at our home. It is warm and comforting but also feels healthy because of all the veggies.

Tempeh Sauteing in Peanut Oil

I like to add protein to this dish with tempeh, which I started off by sauteing in a little bit of peanut oil. The tempeh picks up the peanut flavors from the oil and almost tastes like little soft peanuts in the finished dish.

Carrots, Broccoli, and Pepper

While the tempeh was cooking, I got all my veggies ready. You could really add almost any type of veggies you wanted, but I went with carrots, red pepper, and broccoli. I love the way broccoli picks up all the sauce in this dish!

Veggies Sauteing!

Once the tempeh was done cooking, I put it on a plate to hang out while I cooked all the veggies. After adding a little more peanut oil to the pan, the carrots went in first, followed by the pepper and finally the broccoli. With the broccoli, I added a little soy sauce and then covered the veggies to steam for a bit.

The pasta had been cooking during this – I like to use whole wheat rotini noodles for this dish. Not exactly a classic asian choice, but they work really well with the peanutty sauce. The veggies were done, so I added lots of fresh ground peanut butter, a little more soy sauce, some sriracha sauce, and cooking water from the pasta to the pan. Once the peanut butter had dissolved into the liquids, it was ready for the addition of the tempeh and the noodles. Jon said it was exactly what he was in the mood for after a crazy day at work – I’m so glad I can read his mind (or at least his stomach)!

Asian Peanut Pasta Ready to Serve