Linguine With Snow Peas, Cucumber, And Peanut Sauce

Total Time: 30 mins Preparation Time: 15 mins Cook Time: 15 mins

Ingredients

• Servings: 4
• 2 garlic cloves
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1/3 cup peanut butter
• 2/3 cup canned low sodium chicken broth or 2/3 cup homemade stock
• 1 1/2 tablespoons lime juice
• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 lb linguine
• 1/2 lb snow peas, cut diagonally into thin slices
• 1 1/2 cups bean sprouts (about 1/4 pound)
• 2 scallions, including green tops chopped
• 1 cucumber, peeled, halved lengthwise, seeded, and sliced thin
• 1/2 cup chopped peanuts

Recipe

• 1 for peanut sauce: in a blender or food processor, combine the garlic, soy sauce, peanut butter, chicken broth, lime juice, red-pepper flakes, and 1/2 teaspoon of the salt. puree until smooth.
• 2 for pasta: in a large pot of boiling, salted water, cook the linguine until almost done, about 9 minutes.
• 3 to serve: stir in the snow peas and bean sprouts and cook until the vegetables and pasta are just done, about 3 minutes more. drain and toss with the peanut sauce, the remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt, the scallions, cucumber, and 1/3 cup of the peanuts. serve with the remaining peanuts sprinkled over the top.
• 4 vegetable tip: though they're certainly edible, the seeds from a mature cucumber can be somewhat watery. you can simply scoop them out of a halved cucumber with a spoon and discard them--or buy an english (hothouse) cucumber, which is almost completely seedless.