Peanut-sesame-ish Chinese pasta

Its been a while since we had pasta, and today being a holiday, me having a pack of Lomein Chinese pasta that a friend got from Hong Kong, and craving for something peanut-y, all inspired this pasta. Some search on the internet for an inspiration, and viola, this recipe was born!

Recipe Courtesy – Broadly inspired from the Lomein recipes off the internet

Ingredients

For the sauce -
Roasted peanuts - 2 fistfuls
Sesame seeds - 2 tbsps
Soya sauce - 2 tbsps
Vegetable broth - 1 cup
Red chilli flakes - 2 tbsps
Sesame oil - 2 tbsps
Salt - To taste

Preparing the vegetables & pasta -
Onions - Length wise sliced - 1 cup
Spring onions - 1 bunch - inch-wise pieces
Green Capsicums - 1 - Chopped in one inch pieces
Carrots - sliced into thin pieces - 1/2 cup
Red chilli flakes - 1 tbsp
Garlic - 8 cloves - crushed in a mortar pestle
Lemon juice - 2 tbsp
Roasted peanuts - 2 tbsps
Sesame oil - 2 tbsps

Lomein pasta - 2 fistfuls, cooked per the instructions on the cover

For Garnish -
Cilantro/Coriander leaves - chopped
Roasted sesame seeds

Instructions

The sauce -

Grind the peanuts and the sesame seeds in a mixer-grinder. Heat the broth in a pan and add the soya sauce. Once the water+soya sauce mixture reaches the boiling temparature, add the peanut mixture, red chilli flakes. Add the sesame oil to this and whisk this mixture. Heat this till the sauce thickens. Remove this from the stove and let it cool.

The vegetables -

In a deep thick-bottomed pan, heat the oil and add the onions, garlic, chilli flakes, capsicum and carrots in that order, and heat them till they are all cooked. Crush the rest of the peanuts and add this to the vegetable mixture. Add salt to this mixture. Add the sauce to this vegetable mixture and mix well so that all the vegetables are coated with the sauce. Now add the cooked pasta and toss well. Remove from heat and add the lemon juice.

Garnish with cilantro leaves and serve hot. Super hot! :)