Veggie Sesame Noodles
This riff on sesame noodles features tons of colorful vegetables. This recipe is healthy and easy to prepare (vegan and easily gluten free).
Updated by Kathryne Taylor on August 29, 2024
These sesame noodles are colorful and completely irresistible! I’m always excited when I find sesame noodles amongst a plethora of dishes at a gathering. As a solo dish, I crave noodles with a little more color, perhaps, and more texture and flavor. Must be the “maximalist vegetarian” in me. Always more veggies!
This riff on sesame noodles is exactly what I’ve wished for. This recipe features tender noodles and green onions, of course. I replaced some of the noodles with tons of crisp raw veggies, plus I added tiny sesame seeds, toasted to bring out their best.
The bold but simple seasonings include soy sauce, sesame oil, fresh ginger and garlic, and a generous sprinkling of fresh cilantro (omit it if you don’t like it). I added some chili flakes for extra heat, which you can scale up or down to suit your preferences.
From what I’ve read, sesame noodles likely originated in the Sichuan province of China (please let me know if you know more). These noodles are not authentic, but they are tasty. I can’t stop going back for more.
Bring these noodles to a gathering or serve them as a side dish. They are nice at room temperature or chilled. Or, turn this recipe into a light meal by adding shelled edamame, crispy baked tofu or a fried egg or two. This recipe keeps well for several days in the fridge, and packs well for lunch.
Watch How to Make Colorful Veggie Sesame Noodles
This recipe is an updated and improved version of a very old recipe on my blog called “Soba Noodles with Vegetables.” Way back in 2011, I wasn’t quite satisfied with the seasonings, but I wasn’t sure how to fix them. I’ve revisited the recipe and tweaked it to yield exactly the flavor I’ve been craving all this time.
If you’re a fan of the old recipe, view the original recipe as a PDF here.
Craving more noodles?
Try these related recipes:
- Peanut Slaw with Soba Noodles
- Sugar Snap Pea and Carrot Soba Noodles
- Almond-Sesame Soba Zoodles with Quick-Pickled Veggies
- Colorful Veggie Lettuce Wraps
You might also enjoy my Fresh Spring Rolls with Peanut Sauce, Crunchy Thai Peanut & Quinoa Salad, and the Fresh Sesame Soba Spring Rolls with Peanut Dipping Sauce in Love Real Food (page 98).
Please let me know how your sesame noodles turn out in the comments! I love hearing from you.
Veggie Sesame Noodles
This riff on sesame noodles features tons of colorful vegetables. This recipe is healthy and easy to prepare—perfect for bringing to get-togethers! It’s vegetarian/vegan and easily gluten free. Recipe yields 6 side servings.
Ingredients
- 8 ounces soba noodles or spaghetti noodles of choice*
- ¼ cup raw sesame seeds
- ⅓ cup reduced sodium tamari (or soy sauce, just be sure it’s reduced sodium or it will taste too salty)
- ¼ cup toasted sesame oil
- 2 tablespoons lime juice (about 1 medium lime)
- 1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
- 2 cloves garlic, pressed or minced
- ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes, to taste (scale back or omit if sensitive to spice)
- 2 ½ cups thinly sliced red cabbage (about 10 ounces or ¼th medium cabbage)
- 3 whole carrots, peeled and then sliced into ribbons with vegetable peeler (about 1 ½ cups)
- 1 red bell pepper, sliced into very thin strips
- 1 bunch green onions, chopped
- ½ cup chopped cilantro
- Optional: 2 cups shelled edamame, steamed
Instructions
- Cook the soba noodles according to the package directions. Once they’re done cooking, drain them in a colander and rinse them well under cool water. Transfer the drained noodles to a large serving bowl and set aside.
- Meanwhile, toast the sesame seeds in a small skillet over medium heat, stirring often (keep an eye on them, as they can burn quickly). Once they’re fragrant and turning golden, transfer them to a small bowl so they don’t burn. Set aside.
- In another bowl, combine the tamari, sesame oil, lime juice, ginger, garlic and red pepper flakes. Whisk until blended. Set aside.
- To assemble, add the cabbage, carrots, bell pepper, green onions, cilantro and optional edamame to your bowl with the noodles. Drizzle in the dressing. Add all of the sesame seeds, and use tongs to toss until the mixture is fully combined. Serve immediately, or refrigerate for later. This salad is best consumed within a couple of days, but it will keep for up to 5 days.
Notes
Recipe adapted from Last Minute Sesame Noodles on Aggie’s Kitchen, originally from Eatingwell.com
*Make it gluten free: If you are sensitive to gluten, seek out 100% buckwheat soba noodles (I like Eden Foods’ brand) or substitute your favorite sturdy gluten-free spaghetti.
Change it up: Try adding a tablespoon or two of peanut butter to the dressing. Or, play around with the vegetables used here—you’ll just need about 5 cups total. For additional protein, include the optional edamame or serve with crispy baked tofu on top, or add a fried egg or scrambled eggs.
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.
That looks so good! I love the bright colors. And I love soba noodles and I’m always looking for new ways to try them, so this is perfect. I love using all the veggies in this. I’m going to try this for sure, peanut butter sounds like an awesome option!
Hooray, please let me know how it turns out! I have a hunch that you could toss peanut butter with the warm, cooked soba noodles if you want to incorporate it with the whole batch.
So lovely . . . We just had it for lunch. I used everything, added basil and substituted peanut butter for almond butter and made more dressing than required… Delicious!!
wow – this is a stunning salad, Kate! It looks fantastic with all those colours! :)
I always love colourful dishes and this looks great!
I have never tried soba noodles so when I pick some up I will have to try your recipe :)
This looks AMAZING! I’ll have to try this out for my boyfriend, he’s a bit of a soba junkie.
I’m a bit of a soba junkie after trying this recipe. I went back to the gourmet store and stocked up on noodles. Can’t wait to try more variations!
I don’t know if it’s okay to make requests. But if you could come up with a recipe that requires the use of several HUGE cucumbers, that would be awesome. It’s the only thing my garden is producing out the wazoo. I’ve made cucumber water, quick pickles, and we’ve had cucumber on every salad since the start of June! Maybe you could start an “Ask Kate” portion of the blog? Hehe. But seriously.
I love that idea! I have some cucumber recipes up my sleeve for you, but I probably won’t be able to make them until next week. I’m going to Denver on Thursday, and hanging out with Kirsten Thursday through Saturday!
(!!!!!)
Cukes make good dehydrated chips. Also remember local Foodbank.
I just love that opening photograph – so gorgeous! And I love soba noodle dishes so I’ll be saving this one for sure =)
This salad sounds lovely! Great combo of flavours. Yum!
Just made the recipe tonight. It was easy, fresh and super healthy. Added chicken breast on top. Super tasty!
I’m so glad to hear you enjoyed the recipe! It is super healthy, and even more filling with chicken, I bet.
This meal looks delicious! The colors are incredible and the flavor sounds perfect. I’ve never experimented with cooking Asian cuisines but you’ve just inspired me to give it a try. Great job Kate :)
Go for it! This recipe is really easy. All you have to do is cook the pasta, chop the vegetables, and throw it all together!
This salad looks so great and refreshing! I think I can handle turning on the oven just long enough to cook those noodles.
love the colours – one perfect rainbow meal :D
ive been having soba a lot lately as well…i use tahini + soy sauce instead of PB though. will try the PB version next time!
I never would have thought to add tahini! I’m going to try that soon.
Gorgeous, gorgeous salad! With the heat of summer settling in, I’ve been craving salads much more than usual–and this one looks and sounds perfect. I’m in love with these photos.
YUM!! Can’t wait to try it; soba noodles are our favorite. The jalapeño and lime sound so dream, too.
8 or 8 oz soba noodles? Thanks for the pb idea!
Sorry, 8 ounces! That’s a full package of noodles.
Made this tonight. Delicious!!!! I added steamed kale and it complemented the flavors really well. Psyched I have leftovers for tomorrow’s lunch. Yum!
Made this for dinner tonight but I stir fried the veggies (except the onions) and added a tablespoon of Tahini to the sauce. I wanted a hot meal. It was great! My husbands favorite so far, my little guy loved it too! I can’t wait for lunch tomorrow for some leftovers lol.
Kate, I will make this recipe the first one I try with Soba noodles! I don’t know if 1/2 c. tamari sauce means reduced TO or reduced FROM 1/2 cup. Can you help please? THANK YOU.
Hi BarbaraAnn, I’m sorry for the confusion. The recipe calls for 1/2 cup of tamari sauce. I recommend using reduced sodium tamari sauce to cut down on the saltiness of the dish.
I’ve been meaning to make this salad for weeks and finally did so tonight. I am on my third bowl of it! Absolutely delicious and beautiful to look at.
I did add the juice from half a lime, 1 T. peanut butter and half a seeded jalapeno. It definitely has heat, but in a good way. I think that my kids would have preferred it without the jalapeno and maybe reduced the red pepper flakes. The only thing I did wrong was use regular tamari instead of reduced sodium and the dish did turn out a tad too salty.
I’m so glad you enjoyed the soba noodle bowls, Tonya! Regular soy sauce/tamari can be way too salty, but I’m glad it still turned out ok!
Hi Kate!
Any idea how long leftovers of this salad keep in the fridge? I wanted to make ahead for lunch for the week but wanted to know if you knew how long I could save it for, and if I should keep the dressing on the side for now or if it’s okay to throw in ahead of time.
Thanks!
Hey Alex, great question! I mixed up this salad all at once and enjoyed the leftovers for several days without problems. The only ingredient here that will wilt in the dressing is the cilantro, so you might want to keep that separate and add it to each bowl before you’re ready to eat. Otherwise, I think you will be all good! The tamari should act as a bit of a preservative so I would think that this salad will last for 4 to 5 days in the fridge (maybe longer, I trust your judgment here).
This is a great recipe, although I couldn’t make the dressing work as is; the 1/2 cup of tamari was too much for me. Instead, I made the dressing with 1 T of tamari and that did the trick. This recipe is going into my rotation.
I’m a little late to the party, but this is a keeper! I added jalapeño and used fresh veggies and it was perfect. Now on to more of Kate’s tasty recipes :) go Kate!
Thanks, Carolyn!
I made this today – very good – thanks for the inspiration. I made it with what I had in the house, so used fresh parsley rather than cilantro and I had no edamame so there were no beans and I had no spring onions but a ton of chives so threw in a bunch of those. I also used tahini rather than peanut butter.
I think you could make it 2 flavor styles – one more Thai inspired with peanut butter and crushed peanuts instead of sesame seeds, using also lime and cilantro. And one more Japanese with the sesame seeds,and use tahini to keep the sesame flavor theme going. I think it would also be good for the Japanese-y style with some fresh chopped ginger or little Japanese pickled vegetables … next time !
Fantastic suggestions, GN! Glad you enjoyed it.
This was a HUGE hit at my birhday bbq yesterday. We had Thai inspired smoked ribs with a pineapple/vinegar/fish sauce dipping sauce and marinated skirt steaks and this salad was a perfect counterpoint. Thanks for a wonderful, delicious and healthy recipe!
Happy to hear that you enjoyed the salad, Tess! Sounds like it complemented the rest of your meal nicely.
What a wonderful recipe!! Easy, delish, healthy and beautiful ! Can’t wait to have my friends over to serve this dish. So glad I came across your site! Thank you !
This salad is fantastic. I am moving towards a semi-raw diet. So this dish fits perfectly. I used Bragg’s amino acids instead of the tamarind and added garlic, mushrooms, and ginger. Thanks for his dish. It will be a regular in my house
I made this last night and it was delicious! Super healthy and flavorful. This would be a great recipe to make on a Sunday and have for packed lunches (except that when I made it my boyfriend liked it so much he ate it all!)
Thanks, Aubree! I’m so glad you two enjoyed it. I can’t blame your boyfriend, I lose all control in front of a bowl of soba noodles myself.
I am so exited to have found this….looks amazing! Question – do you use seasoned rice vinegar? Or just rice vinegar? Thanks!!
Thanks, Keri! I used regular, unseasoned rice vinegar. Be sure to use reduced sodium tamari/soy sauce… the regular stuff is too salty.
This is one of my favorite dishes of all time, and is now a staple in our house since I found it about a year ago. Even my 10 year old likes it!! Just saw your brussell sprout & peanut soba noodle slaw recipes. Can’t wait to try them out!
Kristen, that’s great to hear! Thank you. Hope you love the other recipes just as much. :)
I made this salad 2 years and a day ago for my first Sunday dinner with friends in college. It was delicious and a huge hit (a couple friends found it too spicy, an easy fix for them.) I decided to make it again tonight (adding baby corn!) with hopes of having it for lunch each day this week. Well, I forgot just HOW much this makes. I’ll have to get eating :) Thanks for an awesome recipe, and one I’ll keep coming back to for sure!
That’s great to hear! Thank you, Katherine! Baby corn sounds like a fun addition. Enjoy. :)
Yumm!! this was really nice. I made a big batch of it to eat throughout the week for dinner. Edamame beans are sort of hard to come by in Australia, but I substituted them for sugar snap peas, which also tasted delicious! Serving it with peanut butter is a really good idea aswell :)
Thanks, Minna! Glad you enjoyed the recipe! I bet sugar snap peas were great.
I’m making this for the millionth time upon request from my eldest. Such a good way to get vegetable matter into the kids. It’s also my go to summer potluck share, so Thank You for the recipe!
Yay, happy to hear your kids are enjoying this veggie pasta! Thanks, Krista!
So delicious! I made this dish last night. I added fresh basil, garlic and ginger. The peanut butter addition for lunch today was even better. Thank you!
Thank you, Jackie! Really glad to hear it!
This dish is fantastic (coming from a soba-holic)! We added a tablespoon of tahini that thickened the sauce and added extra flavor. Highly recommend. Thank you!
Yay, thanks Sarah!
This looks really good! I was thinking of making it for meal prep as dinners for throughout the school week. How long does it last in the fridge? Thanks x
Maddie, I’m sorry I didn’t see your question sooner! I’d say it will keep well for up to four days.
I love this recipe and just made a double batch for the second time. I put a little freshly grated ginger in the sauce, added tofu and subbed peanuts for sesame seeds and it turned out great. The sauce is enough for a double batch. Great recipe and I love the
Thank you, Emilie! Your version sounds awesome.
Hi Kate,
I love love love your recipes! I make them several times a week. I’m looking for hot recipes now, for the cold weather. Thanks so much!
Metalmom
Seems like the ingredients section has disappeared!
Jodi, thank you for bringing that to my attention! I really appreciate it. It’s fixed now. I recently made some changes in how my recipes display and somehow a few of them lost their ingredients or instructions along the way.
No problem. I love this recipe :)
It’s so good!!! I made it with frozen veg because I’m a student who needs food to last but it was still amazing especially after adding cashew butter My palates went through a unicornific experience
Oh, I’m so glad it worked out with frozen veggies, too! Great that you loved it, Lydia. Thanks.
So colorful and delicious! You know it’s good for you with all that color! I used zero noodles and added some black beans for a little more protein and made it a dinner. Yum.
Yum! That sounds delicious, Jennifer. Thanks!
Wow, this is seriously delicious! The sauce to veggies and noodle ratio is perfect and it has so much flavor! I’ve been trying to find a great recipe to take with me on my trips (Flight Attendant here), and this is perfect. Thanks Kate!
Great! I hope this works as a nice in-flight lunch for you, Gaby. :)
This is the first comment on a recipe that I’ve ever made because I wanted to thank you! I came across this about 1.5 years ago, scrolling through the internet. I never had cooked with soba noodles before, and this recipe, along with the sugar snap peas & carrots recipe, kick started a love of soba noodles. I’ve used both these receipes as the basis for countless meals. Thank you!
Well thank you for taking the time to comment, Skye! I’m so glad you enjoy this dish so much!
Hi Kate,
I noticed that canola oil is not listed as one of the ingredients for this dish, but it is in the instructions (step 3). Could you clarify whether or not it is one of the ingredients?
Sorry about that, Alex. Canola was originally an option listed in the ingredients list but I don’t like to recommend it any more. You can use peanut oil or olive oil.
My new favorite salad. I love soba noodles and adding all these fresh veggies made it a meal.Need to invest a little time in prepping the veggies but very simple to put together. I made just half the recipe and still had plenty for 2 more meals. Outstanding. Would be great to take to picnics too.
Wonderful, Denise! Thank you, for your review.
This was so delicious – not to mention quick and easy. We made a batch to bring to the beach – Yum!
Thank you, Brianne!
Once again a super successful recipe! Colorful, highly adaptable to whatever vegetables are available at the moment, and I just can’t get enough of that sesame soy taste!
Thank you, Ophelie!
This recipe has become a favourite in my house and one that is requested quite often. Love the freshness of the veggies and flavours of the sauce. Tastes even better the next day!
Wonderful, Kloe! Thanks for the review.
Amazing salad. Made it for a pot luck and arrived late. I hadn’t tasted it yet and between two couples we devoured the whole bowl of a double recipe. (A few others tasted it after their meals… we were glad they had eaten!) This will be a staple from now on.
Made this to eat on top-
1 cup salted roasted peanuts and 3 jalepenos chopped in the processor. Add a splash of lime and serve on the salad. Made it SOOO good and spicy.
Thank you! Thanks for sharing your topping. Sounds delicious!
LOVE, Love this recipe. Have prepared it now countless times, and also today. Which prompted me to finally rate the recipe.
This is a stand by for any get togethers at my house, but I love it so much that often I fix it just for myself
Just an interesting little tid bit – I live in NC. I shared this recipe with my niece who lives in Toronto, when i casually mentioned that it is from the Cookie and Kate website- she told me, to my big delight, that it is her favorite blog as well….she happily uses many of your recipes.
I JUST made the spring rolls in your cookbook for lunch today so this is such a coincidence! I don’t have any rice paper rolls leftover but plenty of soba noodles so I will definitely give this one a go next. I really crave fresh, veggie-packed dishes this time of year. Great to take advantage of the summer seasonal produce.
That is a great idea, Hayley! I’m excited you loved the spring rolls form my book. Check out my spring roll recipe on the blog too. :)
This looks absolutely delicious but I wanted to check that the sesame oil needs to be toasted (in instructions)as well as the seeds?
Hi! You will want to use already toasted sesame oil. I hope that makes sense!
This sounds good (and I love all your recipes) but if you want really out-of-this-world, just amazing sesame noodles I highly recommend Chinese Sesame Paste. You can get it at any Asian grocery store, or online easily. It really does give it that perfect flavor like you get at a restaurant.
Thank you for sharing, Gianna!