Cold Sesame Noodle Salad

IT'S ANOTHER LEFTOVER RECIPE!  

What is it about the laws of the universe that are super duper intent on NEVER allowing you to make the correct amount of pasta to sauce?  It's a thing, right?  

So this is what you do:  since you know this is going to be happening, err on the side of extra pasta, not extra sauce.  Then you make this cold salad all summer long with your extra noodles.  The dressing is what makes it, and you can use any veggies or pasta type that you like.  Toss it all together, lunches for days.  

For the dressing you need sambal oelek (or any spicy chili paste, really), rice vinegar, soy sauce, sesame oil, fish sauce, olive oil, and sugar.  

Dump the ingredients in a bowl, whisk it to death, and taste it!  Make it spicier if you'd like, sweeter, your choice.  

Then just prep your salad ingredients.  Like I said, you can use anything in the world you like, but you're looking for about 4 cups of cooked pasta and that many veggies.  I did shredded cabbage, strips or cucumber and carrot, sliced green onions, cilantro leaves, and sprouted peas that I've been putting raw on salads all over this biz, per your recommendations.  

Then it's as simple as adding everything to the bowl with the dressing....

....and using tongs to toss it all together!  Take extra time for tossing, you really want the noodles to soften from the dressing and everything to be nicely combined.  

Now, you can serve this right now, leave it in the fridge for a few hours, or keep it for a couple of days and dole it out as lunches, like we've been doing.  All methods are delicious, I promise. 

Make this all summer, and switch up your veggies and pasta shapes - it feels different every time, and you aren't stuck microwaving pasta with teeny bits of sauce wondering WHY this is happening to you again.  Now you've got extra pasta on purpose, and a great purpose for it.  

The end.