Simple Sesame Noodles From The Pioneer Woman Reviewed

• Estimated Cooking Time: 20 minutes
• Actual Cooking Time (Including prep): 26 minutes

I was shocked at how simple this recipe was, and how fast it could be made. Actually, the only thing that took long was boiling the noodles so if you have these prepped beforehand, you could make this in less than 10 minutes flat. I chose fettuccini, even though it's not really an “asian” style noodle. Whatever, I'm in a fettuccini phase.

You could use anything on hand though. Spaghetti would also work, or you could go more Asian with rice noodles, or glass noodles, or even udon noodles. In fact, if you're vegan and don't eat eggs, you could pick something like edamame noodles or make your own with spiralizer.

Start the recipe by boiling water then adding your noodles. I put a pinch of water and a squirt of oil out of habit, but I know not everyone is going to agree with that.  While your noodles are boiling, you can get everything else ready.

I added shrimp to my recipe. I love seafood, and I lift weights as well so try to get as much wholesome protein into my diet as I can every day. I used frozen, precooked shrimp. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to thaw them. I decided to make this recipe for the first time and only had an hour before I had to leave for a show…

Lesson learned – thaw your shrimp before cooking, or use warm water to get them to thaw faster, rather than cooking while still frozen. I attempted to get some flavor cooked into the pieces of meat by adding some soy sauce, garlic, and ginger while sautéing/defrosting at the time time. Although they didn't turn out “bad” per se, they were overcooked, and a little chewy.

Next time I'll make an effort to thaw them the day before, maybe even marinating them in a soy/ginger/garlic/onion sauce, letting the hot noodles warm them up to the proper temperature.

As the shrimp cooked (and the noodles still cooking), I began to prepare the sauce. It's really quite simple: soy sauce, sesame oil, plus fresh ginger and garlic. That's it.

Actually, the original recipe called for a few more things like hot pepper oil, but I didn't have that on hand.

The scallions were to be designated as garnishes, but actually I really like the flavor of the white part of the scallions so I added those to the sauce as well. There's a great recipe from Tim Ferris making chicken sous vide with a similar type of sauce that calls for soy sauce, ginger, garlic, and scallions. It's wonderful, and goes well with bok choi FYI.

This is what the sauce looks, minus the scallions. I still haven't gotten used to proper photograph timing for my articles, so I forgot to photograph the final sauce, lol.

Once the noodles were done, I stirred in the shrimp, garnished with the green part of the scallions, and it's done! Ready to eat!

Depending on how many noodles you made, you can add a little more soy sauce according to taste. I like things salty, and am not afraid of having a little extra sodium in my diet. Oh, and don't forget the sesame seeds! Sprinkle some on top before serving and it'll look like a fancy restaurant dish. Check out the original recipe here.