When my husband and I moved in together, we loved spending our afternoons in the kitchen making dinner together and had no problem dirtying every dish in the house to get exactly what we wanted. A lot of life has happened since those days… We’ve both changed jobs, we’re on different shifts, and we had a baby!
Now I’m all about dinner-time efficiency. Not that I don’t want to spend my entire afternoon in the kitchen, but I certainly don’t want to spend it all doing dishes while chasing a one-year-old out of every cabinet and drawer she’s not supposed to be in, which are obviously the only ones she’s interested in.
In light of that, I combined a couple of our favorite recipes into one bowl that whips up in under 30 minutes and (depending how you prep you noodles) only requires two pans. It’s not quite a one pot wonder, but it’s definitely worth the extra pan.
This Asian Noodle Bowl combines this Asian Ground Turkey with our favorite peanut sauce into saucy, savory deliciousness and serves it over toasty, garlicy noodles.
It’s flavorful, filling, and uses ingredients that I always have on hand. Best of all, it makes a ton of food, so your basically making dinner and meal prepping all at once. And it’s loaded with veggies. It’s a winner all around.
Ingredients
For the noodles:
½ pound whole wheat spaghetti noodles or 1 package of rice noodles
1 teaspoon sesame oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
For the pork:
1 tablespoon coconut oil
2 teaspoons sesame oil, divided
2 bell peppers, sliced into thin strips – I recommend yellow, orange, or red
1 yellow onion, sliced into thin strips
1 lb ground pork or turkey
1 cup shredded carrot
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon fresh grated ginger
1 teaspoon kosher salt or ½ teaspoon table salt
½ cup chicken stock
½ cup peanut butter, I used all natural, but regular peanut butter works too
¼ cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
1 bunch cilantro
Juice of half a lime (remaining half can be used for garnish)
Garnish – sriracha, crushed red pepper flakes, additional cilantro, lime, broccoli slaw, thinly sliced radish, cucumber, pickled veggies, whatever you like!
Directions
Prepare noodles according to package directions, drain and set aside. Add sesame oil to a large pot over medium heat. Add garlic to the pan and toast it about a minute, until fragrant. Remove from heat, add noodles, and toss to coat.
Add 1 tablespoon of coconut oil and 1 teaspoon sesame oil to a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add bell pepper and onion and saute 5-6 minutes, until slightly tenderized and blistered. Remove from pan.
Add remaining teaspoon of sesame oil to the pan, still over medium-high heat. Add pork, carrots, garlic, and ginger to the pan and season with salt. Break up pork into small crumbles with a spatula or a wooden spoon and cook until the pork is browned and cooked through and the carrots are softened slightly. Remove from the pan.
Add chicken stock, peanut butter, soy sauce, honey, and rice vinegar to the pan. Stir and bring it to a simmer (it probably won’t mix completely at this stage, but it will be fine).
Return pork and veggies to the pan and toss to coat in the sauce. Remove from heat and add cilantro and juice from half the lime.
Serve pork and veggie mixture over sesame garlic noodles and garnish to taste.
