Ten-Minute Miso Peanut Butter Kimchi Noodles Recipe
by Kenji Morimoto
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5 minutes prep time
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10 minutes cook time
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Easy
Be it after a long work day or the morning after a big night out, I crave carbs, filled with flavour, and ultimately something that’s very quick. This is my go-to dish in these and many other situations. The sauce is made entirely from pantry staples, with nutty creaminess coming from the peanut butter and complexity in umami and spice from the miso and kimchi – brine and pickles.
I often hear of people not knowing what to do with their leftover kimchi brine. Remember that it can be treated as a separate ingredient; here, it both loosens the sauce and adds a lot of flavour and tang. If you have other fermented brines on hand – from sauerkraut, or wet brines from hot sauces – use them, and adjust to your own personal taste.
This recipe is extracted from Ferment, by Kenji Morimoto. Published by One Boat, an imprint of Pan Macmillan, £22
Ingredients for the sauce Serves: 1
- 80–100g dried noodles (instant noodles or spaghetti are my favourites for this)
Ingredients for the sauce
- 1 tbsp peanut butter (chunky or smooth)
- 1 tbsp red miso
- ½ tbsp clear honey or maple syrup
- 1 tsp gochugaru
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- 3 tbsp kimchi brine
- 2 tbsp kimchi, thinly sliced
Ingredients for the garnish
- asparagus, cut into thirds and boiled (for the last 3 minutes with the noodles)
- pak choi, leaves separated and boiled (for the last 2 minutes with the noodles)
- cucumber, julienned spring onion, trimmed and thinly sliced
- sesame seeds
How to make Ten-Minute Miso Peanut Butter Kimchi Noodles
- Prepare your noodles or pasta according to the packet instructions.
- While the noodles are cooking, prepare any vegetable garnishes.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together all of the sauce ingredients.
- When the noodles are ready, drain and add them to the mixing bowl, reserving some of the noodle water in case you need to loosen the sauce.
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Garnish with cucumber, spring onion and sesame seeds.
About the author
Kenji Morimoto is a content creator and food writer based in London. As a fourth generation Japanese American, his cultural identity has always been grounded in food. As a child, he was in charge of making tsukemono (Japanese pickles) for family gatherings, learning from and surrounded by elders recreating flavours of home. Since then, he's cooked in kitchens in Poland, led fermentation and Japanese focused supper clubs in London, taught workshops on koji and kimchi (as well as with Ottolenghi), published in Waitrose Magazine, and spoken on panels at the British Library on themes of community, food, and immigrant narratives.
