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You’re about 30 minutes away from a great budget-friendly and delicious dinner, pasta with a lightly spicy and creamy peanut butter sauce. This Creamy Peanut Noodles with its nice Asian flavors will be a hit with the whole family.
Who doesn’t love noodles in a creamy, spicy peanut sauce? With this recipe, you’ll have an amazing Creamy Peanut Sauce Pasta that you’ll want to serve all the time.
Looking for something quick, healthy, and delicious to make for dinner? You’ve come to the right place! Cream cheese, peanut butter, chili garlic sauce, and soy sauce get cooked together to make this scrumptious sauce.
I made this quick and easy 30-minute Pasta from Better Homes and Gardens magazine, and thought it was great. This recipe was first shared on my blog in 2010, and I have re-worked it a bit, along with new pictures, instructions, and descriptions, all to make a better reader experience.
I originally called it Creamy Pasta with Butternut Squash and Green Onions Recipe, whew that was a long title! LOL So if you’ve come here looking for that recipe, you’re in the right place! Pssst! take a look at the bottom of the post for one of my original pictures! Yikes! LOL
This pasta recipe is one of those recipes you want to keep in your back pocket for when you just don’t have anything planned. You make the dish with ingredients that you probably already have on hand. That’s one thing I love about noodle recipes, they’re quick, easy to make, and made with pantry staples!
We appreciate your support
Please let me know if you have any questions about this recipe. I read all the comments myself and I try to help as soon as I can. I have readers from all levels of comfort and experience in the kitchen on my site, and I’ve tried to answer some of your questions already in the post. But if I’ve missed anything, please feel free to leave a comment and ask.
But, what does it taste like?
I know, the combination of these ingredients seems a little weird. But trust me, they work together to make a nice creamy peanut sauce.
Creamy and filling without being too heavy. Quick to put together (only takes about ½ an hour), and budget-friendly. I don’t think you can ask for much more.
A great weeknight meal with options
Want more protein in the dish? Try it with shrimp or chicken. Check out my recipe for roasted chicken.
It would be pretty with the addition of some lightly sautéed red bell peppers.
I’ve made the dish with sweet potatoes, butternut squash, and acorn squash; really any hard winter squash will be great in this dish.
You can add any veggies you want to this recipe. Amp up the Asian flavors with sauteed bok choy, snap peas, or baby corn.
Toss in some steamed broccoli and garlic if desired. Top the dish with some roasted peanuts as well for a little crunch.
Of course, you could just serve the pasta with the creamy peanut sauce and leave the veggies off entirely if you have picky eaters.
Ingredients & substitutions
Pasta: Use your favorite shape of pasta in this recipe. I like penne or rigatoni for this dish because it’s easy to pick up with a fork. Any small shape pasta will be great. You can also use rice noodles if you want this to be gluten free. Or, try this sauce over zoodles!
Peanut butter: Use your favorite brand or type of peanut butter in this recipe. Both natural peanut butter and regular peanut butter will work. If you can’t have peanut butter, you can also use almond butter, sunbutter, or tahini.
Cream Cheese: Want the dish to be a little lighter in calories? Feel free to use reduced fat cream cheese.
Chili Garlic Sauce: Did you find that you’re all out of chili garlic sauce? Feel free to use Sriracha, tabasco, or any other hot sauce. Don’t like spicy? You can cut back on the spice; I’d suggest cutting it in half rather than leaving it out entirely as it does add lots of flavor.
Soy sauce: I always use low-sodium soy sauce in all my cooking. In fact, I don’t have any full sodium soy sauce in the house. But if you prefer you can use regular soy sauce, gluten-free soy sauce, tamari, or liquid aminos.
Pro tips and how to make this dinner
The peanut butter you use will definitely have an effect on how thick the sauce turns out once you toss it on the pasta. Some brands are thicker and you’ll need to add more of the pasta cooking liquid to get a nice creamy sauce.
Always taste and adjust the spice and liquid in the dish once you pour the sauce on the pasta.
This pasta dish is simple to make. Cut up the sweet potatoes into cubes. You want your sweet potato chunks to be roughly uniform in size so they all cook at about the same rate. Toss the cubed potatoes with the spices, and roast in the oven until tender. I decided to go with my favorite Roasted Sweet Potatoes recipe to make these because it always comes out great!
While the sweet potatoes roast, cook the pasta and make the sauce.
Mix up the sauce ingredients, then add in some of the pasta cooking water. Toss that sauce over the cooked and drained pasta. If it’s too thick, add in some more pasta cooking water.
Toss pasta with sauce, and top with squash and remaining chopped green onions.
How do I store left leftovers?
Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for a couple of days.
Reheat them in the microwave or on the stovetop in a pan. When reheating, add a small splash of water to help loosen up the noodles if they are clumped together.
If you’re making this dish ahead of time, like say for lunch tomorrow, make the sauce a bit more liquidly than you normally would. The pasta will soak up the sauce overnight.
Fall Pasta Recipes
Looking for other great dinner ideas with pasta? Check out my Spinach Provolone Baked Pasta, Blackened Shrimp Pasta, and Garlic Parmesan Pasta.
Recipe
Creamy Peanut Noodles
Ingredients
Sweet potato:
- 1 large sweet potato scrubbed clean
- 1 teaspoon olive oil or light flavored oil of your choice
- ½ teaspoon granulated sugar
- ½ teaspoon chili powder
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
Pasta & sauce:
- 8 ounces small shaped pasta like rigatoni or penne
- 1/3 cup peanut butter
- 3 ounces cream cheese cut into smaller pieces
- 2 teaspoons chili garlic sauce
- 1 tablespoon reduced sodium soy sauce
- 6 green onions thinly sliced on the diagonal
Instructions
Make the sweet potatoes:
- Preheat oven to 400° F.
- Cut sweet potato into bite sized pieces, about ½ to 1-inch in size. You want your sweet potato chunks to be roughly uniform in size so they all cook at about the same rate.
- In a medium bowl, toss the cubed sweet potato with olive oil, sugar, chili powder, and cinnamon.
- Place the spiced sweet potatoes in a large cast iron skillet or on a baking sheet lined with a piece of parchment paper. Roast in 400° F oven, turning occasionally, for 25-30 minutes, or until crisp and browned outside and just tender inside.
Cook the pasta and sauce:
- While the sweet potato roasts, cook the pasta according to package directions. Drain, reserving 1 cup hot pasta water.
- In a small saucepan combine peanut butter, cream cheese, chili sauce, soy sauce, and most of the green onions (reserving some for garnishing); whisk in ¾ cup of the hot pasta water. Stir over medium heat until sauce starts to melt, and heats through.
- If sauce is too thick, stir in additional water. Toss pasta with sauce, and top with sweet potato and remaining chopped green onions.
Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations, and should be considered estimates. Actual nutritional content will vary based on brands used, measuring methods, portion sizes, and more.
Sheila Thigpen
My family loved this pasta dish! So much flavor and so creamy — definitely a repeat recipe on our meal plan!