Description
Thai-inspired creamy peanut noodles with shrimp, snap peas, and peppers. A quick, takeout-style dinner that’s saucy, quick, and perfect for weeknights.
Ingredients
Stir-fry
- 8oz spaghetti or rice noodles *see note
- 2 tablespoons avocado oil, divided
- 1lb shrimp *see note
- salt and pepper
- 8oz snap peas
- 6-8 mini peppers, thinly sliced
- 1 shallot (or small sweet onion), thinly sliced
- 1 tablespoon garlic, minced or garlic paste
- 1 tablespoon fresh ginger, grated
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1/2 cup canned coconut milk
- 1/2 cup natural creamy peanut butter *see note
- 1-1 1/2 cups pasta water
- 1-2 teaspoons sriracha
- 2 tablespoons lime juice
- 1 1/2 tablespoons fish sauce
- 3/4 cup crushed peanuts
- 1/2 cup green onions, thinly sliced
- 1/2 cup Thai basil, chiffonade *see note
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the spaghetti (or desired noodles) and cook per the package instructions. Be SURE to save about 1 ½ cups of starchy pasta water during the last minute of cook time. You likely won’t use it all, but best to save more than not enough. Drain the noodles and return them to the pot.
- While the spaghetti is cooking, heat 1 tablespoon avocado oil in a ceramic-coated nonstick pan over medium heat. Use paper towels to pat as much moisture from the shrimp as possible. Season all over with pinches of salt and pepper. When the oil is hot, add the shrimp and cook for 60-90 seconds per side, until slightly opaque, pink and curled into a ‘c’ shape. Remove the shrimp to a large bowl.
- Add another ½ tablespoon of avocado oil to the pan over medium-high heat. Sauté the snap peas, mini peppers, and shallot for 5 minutes, until crisp-tender. Remove it to the same bowl as the shrimp.
- Add the remaining ½ tablespoon avocado oil to the pan and reduce the heat to medium-low. Add the garlic and ginger, sautéing for 60 seconds until fragrant. Add 2 tablespoons brown sugar and ½ cup of coconut milk, whisking to combine. Add ½ cup peanut butter, whisking quickly, it’ll be thick and look kinda scary, just keep stirring to combine! Gradually whisk in ¾ cup starchy pasta water. If your sauce is still pretty thick, you can continue to add pasta water until your desired consistency is reached.
- Season the sauce with 1-2 teaspoons sriracha, 2 tablespoons lime juice and 1 ½ tablespoons fish sauce. Taste and adjust seasonings, if desired.
- Dump the shrimp, veggies and sauce into the pot with the noodles and toss well to combine, adding splashes of reserved water, as needed.
- Finish by folding in ¾ cup crushed peanuts, ½ cup green onions and ½ cup Thai basil.
- Serve immediately and twirl, swirl and SLURP.
So, so good.
Notes
Noodles: I love this recipe with good ole spaghetti. Rice noodles work great too, but I’ve learned that they definitely break up into smaller pieces as leftovers.
Shrimp: If I haven’t already turned you onto wild-caught Argentinian shrimp, here’s another plug. It’s truly the best. It looks pink (even when raw) and is soooo tender and perfect every time. You can find it at Trader Joe’s, Costco or most major grocery stores.
Coconut milk: Canned coconut milk here, not the kind from the carton (which is mostly water). I use full-fat coconut milk for maximum creaminess but you could also use lite.
Peanut butter: I use the Kirkland natural, creamy peanut butter from Costco, which is just peanuts and salt. If you’re using sweetened peanut butter, you may want to reduce the brown sugar in the sauce slightly.
Chiffonade is a fancy French term for how to thinly slice basil. See my notes and photos on ‘how to chiffonade basil’ in this blog post!
Refer to the above blog post for step-by-step instructions, ingredient information and answers to frequently asked questions.
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Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1/4 of the recipe, about 2 1/2 cups
- Calories: 720
- Sugar: 14.9 g
- Sodium: 868 mg
- Fat: 33.2 g
- Carbohydrates: 66.8 g
- Fiber: 7.1 g
- Protein: 44.6 g
- Cholesterol: 182.5 mg