Asian Pasta Salad w/ Tahini

The goal of this week's trip to the grocery store was to purchase items that I would use for recipes I pulled out of one of my favorite cookbooks, 1000 Vegetarian Recipes by Carol Gelles. One of the recipes I chose was Noodles with Sesame Sauce.

This dish was SUPER simple to prepare and it tastes pretty darn good.

8 oz Angel Hair Pasta
1/2 cup Tahini
3 TB Dry Sherry
1 1/2 TB Soy Sauce
3 TB Water
1 1/2 TB Sugar
2 ts Sesame oil
1/2 ts Ground Ginger (I used fresh that I micro grated)
1/2 ts Chili Oil (optional, I used more)
3 Cloves Garlic
1 cup Chopped Snow or Sugar Snap Peas
3/4 cup Shredded Cucumber
1/3 cup Sliced Scallions

1. Cook the noodles, drain and chill under cold water. Place in a bowl
2. Place tahini, sherry, soy sauce, water, sugar, sesame oil, ginger and chili oil into a blender. Process until smooth. Add garlic while running and process till smooth.
3. Add snow peas, cucumber, and scallions to the bowl with the noodles. Pour sauce over the salad and toss until completely combined.

I added grilled chicken and grated carrot.

A few tweaks that I'm going to try next time:

• Instead of shredding the carrot and cucumber I'm going to julienne them.
• I think this dish needs a little more chili oil.
• Definitely needs salt and pepper.
• The book suggests adding 1 cup of mung bean sprouts