Ina Garten's Crunchy Noodle Salad Is Full of Vegetables and Has an Easy Sauce With 'Great Flavor' - Showbiz Cheat Sheet

Ina Garten has an easy pasta salad recipe with a delicious sauce and bright crisp vegetables. The Barefoot Contessa star shared a couple of tricks to take the dish to the next level.

Ina Garten and Willie Geist | Mike Smith/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images

Ina Garten's crunchy noodle salad recipe is so easy to make

Garten demonstrated how to make her crunchy noodle salad recipe on an episode of Barefoot Contessa. She explained the easy dish is made "with lots of Asian spices."

The Barefoot Contessa star started by boiling a pot of salted water and cooking thin spaghetti. Once cooked, she drained the pasta and set it aside. "I actually like thin spaghetti for it," she explained. "It seems to absorb the flavor the best."

In another pot, Garten boiled salted water and added sugar snap peas, cooking them for 3 to 5 minutes until crisp tender. She moved the peas to a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking process. "It really sets the color and it stops them from getting overcooked," she explained.

Garten made a quick sauce with "agreat flavor" by whisking together vegetable oil, rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, toasted sesame oil, honey, garlic, grated ginger, and smooth peanut butter. The Food Network host explained her choice of oil. "I don't use olive oil here because I want the other Asian flavors to come out," she explained. "So I wanted a clear oil, with no flavor."

Garten added, "You can make this sauce way in advance and you can make the salad in advance. But not too far because actually, the soy sauce will break down the noodles."

She added toasted sesame seeds to the sauce, reserving some to sprinkle over the salad. Then Garten assembled the salad by combining the warm pasta, sugar snap peas, red peppers, and scallions in a bowl, poured the sauce over the top, and sprinkled in sesame seeds and chopped parsley.

The full recipe is available on the Food Network website.

Garten's noodle salad recipe earns rave reviews

Garten's noodle salad gets some solid reviews. "Made this for a potluck," one fan noted in the recipe comments. "I got rave reviews and several people asked for the recipe. Very tasty!"

Another fan wrote, "I loved this! The sauce is perfection! I always add more veggies to this dish, whatever I feel like seasonally. I also prefer using rotini pasta, a shorter noodle."

Some of her fans, however, said they had to make some slight tweaks to the recipe. "Great base salad! I am very grateful for the reviews of others as the dressing needed definite modifications for improvement," one person commented. They adjusted the recipe slightly by reducing the amount of oil and peanut butter.

Other commenters shared how they tossed in shrimp, chicken, or tofu for additional protein.

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