Recipe of the day: Fujian-style Peanut Butter Ban Mian Noodles

Based on this recipe by Christina Xu

Over the past few days we’ve been dropping quick, healthy dishes from the classical Chinese canon. Let’s move into a bit more specialized territory with this easy recipe from Fujian. Ban mian noodles can mean a lot of different things (all tend to be tossed with soy sauce, sesame oil, etc.), but these ones are going to get some help from peanut butter. Let’s get into it:

Ingredients:

1. Chinese wonton noodles, egg noodles, or spaghetti if it’s what you have
2. Creamy peanut butter
3. Soy sauce, sesame oil
4. Scallions

Cook it:

1. Boil some water.
2. Drop the noodles in (just one or two minutes).
3. While that’s going on, mix your peanut butter, soy sauce, and sesame oil into a bowl (start out with a tablespoon ratio of 3:1:1 and play around from there).
4. Plop those noodles in there, and throw in a splash of pasta water to thin out the sauce.
5. Cut up some scallions to sprinkle on top. You could also use sesame seeds, cashews — go crazy.
6. You’re done already! Enjoy the fruits of your labor!