Thai Peanut Pasta Salad

A few weeks ago, I bought dinner from the deli at Byerly's.  (For anyone not from the Twin Cities, Bylerly's is a fancy and fairly expensive grocery store that we have here.)  This is something that I used to do semi-regularly when I was much younger, because they had tasty and mostly healthy options, and the store wasn't too far from my job.  Doing it now is a big treat, because it isn't by my house or my work.  But it was in my travel-path and wasn't crowded when I was out and about (and hungry) at dinner time.    

Anyway, I got a Thai peanut pasta salad that was really good. So tasty, in fact, that I decided to look up the recipe and try to replicate it myself.  After one batch that was delicious both warm and cold, I made a second batch that was a bit healthier: more veggies, different kinds of veggies, less pasta, less oil, less granulated sugar, less sodium, less chicken (or you could make it without chicken all together).  OK, it does have more peanuts and more peanut butter.  But I left out the sesame seeds and added more chopped peanuts...mostly because I was too cheap to buy sesame seeds and toast them when the original recipe only called for 2 Tbsp.  My new recipe is below.    

Ingredients:

• 1 chicken breast, cooked  (approx. 5 oz after cooking)
• 4 oz. uncooked thin spaghetti 
• 1 cup shredded carrots
• 1/3 cup finely chopped green onions
• 1/2 cup chopped dry roasted, unsalted peanuts
• 1 12-oz. package of steam-in-bag cauliflower
• 1 12-oz. package of steam-in-bag broccoli
• 1/3 cup low sodium soy sauce
• 2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
• 2 Tbsp. white vinegar
• 4 Tbsp. peanut butter
• 1 Tbsp. granulated sugar
• 1 dash crushed red pepper
  
  

   

Directions:

1. If you haven't already, cook chicken.  I used a frozen chicken breast (the kind that comes in a bag) and baked it completely for 45 to 50 minutes. 
2. While chicken is cooking, shred carrots, chop onions, and chop peanuts.  Keep these cold ingredients separate for the time being.    
3. Cut up chicken and put into large bowl 
4. Break spaghetti into thirds and cook until just tender.  Drain and put in bowl with chicken.
5. Heat up steam-in-bag veggies until just cooked and put in bowl with chicken and pasta.
6. Measure out ingredients for sauce (soy sauce, vinegar, oil, sugar, red pepper, peanut butter) and stir into warm ingredients.  The warmth will help melt the peanut butter and make it easier to stir in evenly.
7. Mix carrots, onions, and peanuts into the warm ingredients. 
8. Chill, covered in the refrigerator.