Chinese Pasta Salad? Is there such a thing? I doubt it—so what is this?! I don’t know what else to call it! Chinese Pasta Salad is the name it arrived with and I welcome all suggestions for a new name 🙂 This cold pasta side dish is good, very good. I made it for a potluck last night, and three people asked me to post the recipe—as always, I was glad to oblige! Cold noodles, in a sauce of sesame oil, maple syrup (Chinese? I think not!), and soy sauce with chopped dry roasted peanuts (again, Chinese? I think not), green onion and cilantro. I wouldn’t have made this if I hadn’t tried it first. Believe me, with this dish, the whole is better than the sum of it’s parts!

An old coworker of mine, Mary Lou, brought this to an HR potluck on Tuesday, September 20, 2005—I know the date because I still have the email with the recipe bearing the horrible name.

I changed the method a bit, just to make it easier, but other than that, I made no changes to the ingredients. Please forgive me for mixing up my cultures and photographing this Chinese Pasta Salad That Isn’t on a Japanese cloth. Also, the cilantro looks a little old, in the picture, doesn’t it? It is, because I forgot to take a picture the day I served this. This is a picture of what was left in the refrigerator container because it wouldn’t fit into the serving container. So that cilantro has been sitting in the dressing for three days. Yours will look much better, sigh. The world is so out of alignment today.

Chinese Pasta Salad – Not

INGREDIENTS

• 1 lb. angel hair pasta, cooked and drained
• ½ cup pure maple syrup (Grade B, if you can find it)
• ½ cup sesame oil
• ¼ cup soy sauce (I have also used teriyaki)
• 1 cup chopped cilantro
• 1 bunch chopped green onions (6-8)
• ¾ cup coarsely chopped dry roasted peanuts.

DIRECTIONS

1. Blend the maple syrup, sesame oil, and soy sauce in the blender. 
2. Pour over cooked and drained noodles. 
3. Add in chopped cilantro and green onions, then refrigerate overnight.
4. Just before serving, stir in the chopped dry roasted peanuts.

Mary Lou mentioned that she occasionally adds about 2 cups of chopped, cooked chicken to the salad using a cooked rotisserie chicken from the market. I’ve done this once or twice with a chicken breast poached in a bit of soy sauce and water/broth, but actually prefer this salad without the chicken. Plus, it’s always nice to have something on the table for the vegetarians and vegans in the group!

Thanks for stopping by my kitchen today—if you know Mary Lou, please forward this message to her as we have lost track of each other 🙂