Ginger Sesame Noodles Recipe

Ginger and sesame together add a depth of flavor to make any recipe into a special, memorable meal. In this recipe from creator Hayley MacLean, who features her delicious and nutritious concoctions on her Instagram HappyHealthyHayley, ginger sesame noodles offer this distinctive Asian flavor combination. The result is a  simple, delicious vegetarian meal that livens up your noodle game. Plus, as MacLean adds, ginger "has great health benefits including helping with digestion, mediating blood sugars, and improving cardiac health."

Even more, the strong flavors come together quickly, allowing you to pull together your healthy meal in less than a half hour. While you can add other ingredients to your preference, this recipe alone makes for a fantastic vegetarian option, though you can add meats or other proteins. "I love serving these noodles with some teriyaki grilled chicken or tofu and some steamed vegetables," MacLean says. "The warm foods balance the cold noodles so nicely and form a great healthy meal."

Obviously, one of the key ingredients in this recipe is the ginger, so start by picking up a fresh ginger root in the vegetable aisle. While you're there, you should also pick up a garlic bulb since the recipe calls for 2 cloves of minced garlic as well as a bundle of scallions. Next, you need to collect the ingredients for your sauce. Pick up a bottle of rice vinegar, a bottle of balsamic vinegar, a bottle of sesame oil, and a jar of chili garlic sauce. To round out the sauce, grab a jar of honey and a larger bottle of soy sauce.

Finally, you need dry goods. One, 16-ounce package of angel hair or vermicelli pasta and a container of toasted sesame seeds is all you need. That said, you'll need salt and pepper to taste, so if you're running low on those, you might as well pick some up.

While your noodles are cooking is the perfect time to begin chopping, mincing, and grating your other ingredients. Specifically, you need to mince 2 garlic cloves, thinly slice ½ cup of scallions (green onions), and grate ½ tablespoon of ginger. "I like to grate the ginger rather than dicing or mincing it for this recipe as it gives it a smoother consistency when mixed into the dressing and its flavor is more incorporated into the final dish," MacLean advises. The spice is so flavorful you don't need much. 

With your produce cut up, you can wait until the pasta is finished cooking before moving on to the sauce. For that, you need to whisk together the soy sauce, rice vinegar, balsamic vinegar, sesame oil, chili garlic sauce, and the honey. Add in the grated ginger root and minced garlic and continue whisking until it's well-combined.