10-minute Vegan Satay Noodles

Satay is one of my go-to meals. Satay actually originated in Indonesia, but it’s a staple on a Chinese takeaway menu. Chinese food is my favourite, but takeaways every day isn’t a good idea so I had to look into ways to make this vegan but also kinda healthy. That said, there’s nothing wrong to treating yourself to your favourite junk food time and time again, life’s too short to never eat what you love. These 10-minute vegan satay noodles will become one of your favourite meals!

Prep: 5-minutes

Cook time: 5-minutes

Total: 10-minutes

What you need:

For the sauce:

• 4 tbs of smooth peanut butter
• 3 tbs of soy sauce
• 2.5 tsp of golden syrup
• 2.5 tsp of rice vinegar
• 5 tbs of sweet chili sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon of ginger powder
• 50-100 ml of water (depending on how thick you like your sauce)

Everything else

• Brown rice noodles
• Tofu (or protein of choice)
• Bean sprouts
• Peppers, onions, carrots or veggies of choice
• Sesame seeds

Method:

For the sauce

Mix all the sauce ingredients together in a small bowl. It should make a smooth thick paste. You can add some water if you like your meals to be super sauce-y, but the heat will actually just melt the sauce later on so all the noodles are evenly coated.

For everything else

Bring a pan of water to the boil and add one nest of noodles per person, and simmer for 5 minutes. Make sure to remember to stir the noodles with a fork every few minutes so they untangle. Once cooked drain and rinse with cold water. I use Blue Dragon brown rice noodles, but any rice noodles will do.

The tofu also takes 5 minutes to cook if you’re using the same Cauldron marinated tofu as me. Preheat 1 tbsp of oil before adding the tofu. Fry on medium heat for 5-minutes and make sure to turn the tofu over often. After a minute or two you can add your onions. If you’re adding peppers, put them in the frying pan with the tofu because they also take roughly 5-minutes to cook.

I’ve yet to master cooking tofu at home which is why I used the Cauldron tofu. I sometimes have Quron vegan chicken fillets in this dish, but I don’t want to rely on meat substitutes too much, which is why I opted for tofu this time.

For this to be within the 10 minute mark then the Cauldron tofu and blue Dragon (or similar) noodles are perfect. You can go even quicker if you put the Quorn fillets in the microwave and get those microwavable noodles too, but personally I think those noodles taste plastic-y. The Cauldron and blue dragon combo is basically a middle ground, as other noodles and raw tofu could take up to half an hour or more.

The noodles take 5 minutes to cook, but so two minutes in add the beansprouts as they take 3 minutes.

Beansprouts are great because they’re an extra source of plant-based protein.

I grate carrots in last. You don’t have to do this, and can just add carrots cut however you like, and cook them but hear me out first. Grated carrots are barely noticeable so it’s a sneaky way to get more vegetables into a meal without actively making yourself eat them. I like to have some veggies raw. Cooking can leech some of the vitamins and minerals out of vegetables, but of course, there are plenty of veggies you have to cook like corn on the cob. I wouldn’t go 100% raw vegan, but I like to incorporate some raw foods into my diet.

Once the tofu and veggies are cooked, add the noodles and sauce to the pan and turn down the heat. Stir on light heat for a minute or two while the sauce melts into the noodles.

Garnish with some sesame seeds, and there you have it; vegan satay noodles.

Nutritional Breakdown

	PER SERVING	total recipe (serves 2)
Energy	J / 500cal	J/1001cal
Fat	24.2g	24.2g
Carbohydrate	51.2g	51.2g
Sugars	14.16g	28.32g
Fibre	1.35g	2.7g
Protein	21.85g	43.7g
Salt	14.16mg	52.9mg

What do you think of these vegan satay noodles?