Sweet Peas and Saffron

meal prep recipes for busy people

Cold Sesame Noodle Meal Prep Bowls (Vegan)

by 88 Comments

Jump to Recipe Jump to Video

These cold sesame noodle meal prep bowls are the perfect vegan prep ahead lunch: spiralized vegetables tossed with chickpeas and whole wheat spaghetti in a spicy almond butter sauce. 

overhead shot of four Cold Sesame Noodle Meal Prep Bowls

After almost a year of losing my spiralizer during our move, I finally found it! Happy dance!

I was SO excited to unpack it and get back to spiralizing. I love spiralizing to add new textures to salads, and trick myself into lightening up some traditionally carb-laden recipes.

Now I’m not saying these cold sesame noodle meal prep bowls are low carb…however they are much lower carb then they would be with straight up pasta.

And please, no one tell him, but Kai happily munched on a zucchini noodle thinking it was pasta. He was totally tricked! Muah ha ha.

Recipe video

Watch the video below to see exactly how I prepped my Cold Sesame Noodle Meal Prep Bowls. It’s so easy! You can find more of my recipe videos on my YouTube channel, or on Facebook.


close up shot of the sauce and chickpeas in Cold Sesame Noodle Meal Prep Bowls

Reasons to love these cold sesame noodle meal prep bowls

  • they are vegan. I’m hoping to add more plant-based meal prep recipes in 2018 for you guys!
  • THE SAUCE. Spicy, creamy, tangy, gingery…gah. Enough said.
  • You are eating a ton of veggies but it really doesn’t feel like it! I cut the standard 2 oz pasta serving in half and swapped with spiralized zucchini and carrots. It is still a filling and satisfying meal.
  • no microwave needed. Open, toss in sauce, eat. The end.

Cold Sesame Noodle Meal Prep Bowls with fork in glass container

Now there are a few different components to these cold sesame noodles: whole wheat pasta, spiralized veggies, and sauce.

All round, it should still take you under 30 minutes to prep, since you can work on the almond butter sauce and spiralizing the veggies while the pasta cooks.

For protein, we kept it simple with canned chickpeas. You could swap for edamame or even chicken if you’d like.

fork picking up a bite of Cold Sesame Noodles

Tips for perfect cold sesame noodle meal prep bowls:

Print Recipe Pin Recipe
4.89 from 17 votes

Cold Sesame Noodles with Spiralized Vegetables

Course: Main Course
Cuisine: American
Keyword: chickpeas, meal prep, vegan
Calories: 452kcal
Author: Denise Bustard
Servings: 4
These cold sesame noodle meal prep bowls are the perfect vegan prep ahead lunch: spiralized vegetables tossed with chickpeas and whole wheat spaghetti in a spicy almond butter sauce.
Prep Time20 mins
Cook Time10 mins
Total Time30 mins

Ingredients

  • 4 oz whole wheat spaghetti uncooked
  • 1 medium-sized zucchini spiralized
  • 2 large carrots spiralized or shredded
  • 2 cups chickpeas 19 oz can, drained & rinsed
  • green onions to garnish
  • sesame seeds to garnish

Almond Butter Sauce:

  • 1/4 cup almond butter
  • 1 teaspoon finely grated ginger
  • 1 clove garlic minced
  • 2 tablespoons soy sauce I use reduced sodium
  • 3 tablespoons rice vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon sesame oil
  • 1 tablespoon maple syrup
  • 1 teaspoon lime juice
  • 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes optional; omit for non-spicy version

Instructions

  • Cook pasta according to package directions. Rinse under cold water and set aside to cool completely.
  • Portion out pasta, zoodles, carrot noodles and chickpeas between four 2-cup storage containers. Sprinkle with green onions and sesame seeds.
  • Stir or shake together all almond butter sauce ingredients, and divide amongst 2 oz storage containers.

Storage

  • Store in the fridge for up to 4 days. This recipe is not freezer-friendly.

To Serve

  • Enjoy cold. Drizzle with the almond butter sauce and toss up before serving.

Notes

Almond butter may be swapped with any other natural nut butter.

Nutrition

Serving: 1lunch bowl | Calories: 452kcal | Carbohydrates: 65g | Protein: 19g | Fat: 15g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Sodium: 971mg | Fiber: 14g | Sugar: 13g

 

Reader Interactions

About Denise Bustard

Denise Bustard is the creator of Sweet Peas and Saffron, a meal prep-focussed food blog. With a PhD in biochemistry, Denise takes a scientific approach to perfecting her recipes. You can find Denise's work featured on Huffington Post, MSN, Self and more. read more

This site contains affiliate links, meaning that if you make a purchase through them, we will receive a small commission.

FREE EMAIL COURSE

Meal Prep Quick Start Guide

Tips & strategies to get you prepping...fast!

Comments

  1. Heather

    My daughter will love this for school lunch and she can have tahini but not nut butters. The spirals are very pretty but could I use shreds or slices from my food processor instead? I only have a small handheld spiralizer that will work on zucchini but not carrots.

    Reply

    • Denise Bustard

      Hi Heather! I think shredded carrots + zucchini would work fine. You might want to squeeze any moisture out of the zucchini (I find it gets wetter when shredded than it does spiralled). Hope you enjoy!

      Reply

  2. Ruth

    5 stars
    Just made this! Very good! I mixed all the sauce in right away and stored it in one big container instead of meal prepping portions, and this worked fine. Nothing got mushy. Super tasty, very good with avocado.

    Reply

    • Denise

      Hi Ruth! That’s so great to hear, I appreciate you letting us know that the texture was not affected by adding the sauce right away. Thanks for taking the time to leave a review!

      Reply

  5. Sarah

    I’m so looking forward to trying this! I had two questions: (1) Is this freezable? (If so, how?) (2) If I buy pre-spiralized zucchini or carrot noodles, how much would you say that each serving needs?

    Reply

    • Denise

      Hi Sarah! Sorry for my late reply. 1) this is not freezable 2) I don’t know how exactly many you would need, but I would aim for about 1 cup of vegetables per meal prep bowl. Hope this helps!

      Reply

  9. Laura J

    5 stars
    This was delicious! Will definitely be adding to my lunch/dinner rotation! Can’t wait to go through your recipes and try some more!!

    Reply

  12. Kirsty Jones

    Absolutely amazing! The satay sauce is so tasty and aromatic and everything works so well together. I make this meal regularly and it is thoroughly enjoyed.

    Thank you so much for this recipe.

    Reply

  13. love

    4 stars
    sauce makes everything bearable, if you don’t like to eat healthy lol.
    i do like to eat healthy so the whole thing was great…may roast chickpeas next time but honestly was super surprised at how much flavor the sauce packs, just enough for everything.

    Reply

  14. Jinny

    5 stars
    Great Recipe! I love that it is vegan friendly as well howecer my son needs some meat here as he does lots of physical activities. So if you meal prep this with chicken, can you still keep it in the fridge for up to 4 days?

    Reply

  15. Niki

    5 stars
    Great recipe!!
    My handheld spiralizer is not the best for carrots because they tend to be thin so I’ll have to try it with a tabletop/crank version! They still came out fabulous loved everything. I roasted the chickpeas instead of leaving them raw to add some crispyness with a little cayenne pepper and threw in some avocado chunks that went great with the sauce. Perfect to meal prep and have lunch/dinner ready fast!

    Reply

  17. Blayne

    This looks delicious ! Do you think you could add the dressing when you make it in the morning and not wait until you eat it in the afternoon, for example? Thanks

    Reply

  20. Makenzie

    Is the nutritional information for the entire recipe worth of ingredients (4oz noodles)? Or is it for one serving with one ounce of noodles?

    Reply

  21. Belyn

    5 stars
    Good recipe. I substituted honey for maple syrup, tamari instead of soy sauce, gluten free noodles, and used 1 drop doTERRA lime essential oil, and ginger essential oil instead of grated ginger & lime juice. I’m saving this recipe. Thanks

    Reply

  25. Cristi Zbella

    5 stars
    I’m not vegan, but this recipe is FANTASTIC. I followed the recipe exactly, using real almond butter, real maple syrup. Delicious. I’ve already made it twice and have shared the recipe. I wish I could post a picture! Thanks for a great recipe.

    Reply

  26. Katie

    i just made the sauce and it was real runny. I didn’t see anyone else question the amount of vinegar but I just want to make sure it is TABLESPOONS not TEASPOONS. Maybe my almond butter was old. I’m going to give it another try but can you confirm the ratios are written correctly before I put it together a second time? THANK YOU FOR CHECKING!

    Reply

    • Denise

      Hi Katie, yes it is tablespoons 🙂 It should be liquidy enough to use as a dressing, but still slightly thickened…watch the video in the post for a good visual. Perhaps your almond butter was on the liquidy side? Let me know how it turns out if you try again!

      Reply

  27. Courtenay

    This is amazing! I made it today but used a cucumber in place of zucchini and added chicken. SO SO good and the dressing is on point. YUM! Thank you for this great recipe! 🙂

    Reply

  29. Jane

    4 stars
    I found the sauce too salty so cut the soy sauce in half and it was delicious! I made rice paper rolls with bean sprouts, cucumber, red pepper, Thai basil, mint and mango. The sauce was perfect for them!!!

    Reply

    • Denise

      Hi Jane! Did you use reduced sodium soy sauce? I find regular soy sauce way too salty and exclusively use the reduced sodium stuff these days. I mentioned it in the recipe card. Glad you enjoyed!

      Reply

  30. Heather

    Can anything be substituted for the spiralized zucchini? We are not back g fans of the flavor/texture of it

    Reply

    • Denise

      Hi Heather! I would swap the zucchini noodles for shredded cabbage, broccoli slaw, or any other hardy vegetable mix. I think this dressing would work great with a number of veggies!

      Reply

  31. Bethany

    So I just made this. Didn’t have almond butter so I used used peanut butter and omitted maple syrup. My dressing was probably thicker because of that but so delicious

    Reply

    • Denise

      Hi Rosemary! Apologies for my late reply; I’ve just returned from holidays. I would just leave the sesame oil out, although there are natural oils in the almond butter as well. I’m not sure what you could swap the almond butter for. Hope you enjoy!

      Reply

  34. Dianne

    5 stars
    Though I am positive this dish would’ve been amazing as written, I did make some substitutions/additions based on ingredients I had available. I substituted edamame for the chickpeas and hefty squirt of sriracha in place of the red pepper flakes in the dressing. I also added thinly sliced orange and red bell pepper and some shredded green cabbage. It was absolutely delicious! I doubled the recipe and made a week’s worth of lunches for my husband and me. It was so satisfying! Very filling without feeling heavy, so it’s the perfect quick lunch for two people who spend the entirety of their work days on their feet. As a vegan, I always love coming across a vegan based recipe with mass appeal and adaptability. Get it, girl! 🙂

    Reply

  35. Emily

    So delicious!! I subsituted chicken for chickpeas and peanut butter for the almond butter. So yummy! And awesome dish for summer when you don’t want something hot. Great recipe!

    Reply

  38. Erin Maxwell

    I love this so much! The first time I made it I followed the recipe exactly and it was so good that my fiancé and I both couldnt help but to eat it for both lunch and supper on that very day. The second time I made it I decided to play around a little and subbed out the almond butter for tahini to give it even more of a sesame kick, and used a tsp of ground fresh chili paste instead of the half tsp of flakes, to pump up the heat, and it was sooooo lovely. Tonight, I really just wanted a side salad to go with my meal, so I only made the spiralized zucchini and carrot, topped with the green onions. For the dressing I did the tahini and chili paste thing again, however this time I integrated the ingredients together using my immersion blender. And holy moly! It was so smooth and almost whipped in texture and it just made it seem so decadent. I’m addicted.

    Reply

    • Denise

      I’m so happy you’ve enjoyed them, Erin! I definitely have to try them with tahini. Thank you so much for taking the time to leave such a nice review <3

      Reply

  40. Jennifer

    I love using silicone baking cups (round or otherwise shaped) for my sauce cups. They are so easy to clean and you can squeeze them to get all the sauce out. I can’t wait to try this recipe, it looks amazing!

    Reply

  41. Kate Larsson

    Thanks for the Vegetarian option. I use these reusable glass 2 oz containers with lids instead of plastic. I try to avoid using plastic whenever I can. Green Sprouts Reusable Baby Food Glass Containers Freezer Cubes 2 ounce
    They are available on Amazon.

    Reply

  42. Karen

    5 stars
    Oh yes! This is my new favourite lunch! Just made it for dinner and got so excited to eat it that I forgot the chickpeas! I added some avocado and it was so delicious. Thanks for sharing. This is now in my rotation ?? I will remember the chickpeas next time.

    Reply

  43. Megan

    5 stars
    This was simple to make and tasted amazing!! I subbed GF pasta for the whole wheat and liquid aminos for the soy sauce to make this gluten free but otherwise followed the recipe exactly. I do like a bit more spice, so will probably either increase the pepper flakes or add a touch of sriracha next time I make this.

    Reply

  44. Katie Lathrop

    5 stars
    Oh my goodness… I want to eat this sauce on everything! Made this for meal prep for the first part of the week for my fiance & I (chickpeas in mine & chicken for him), and I am definitely adding it to the list of things to make again!

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

logo

join the FREE lunch prep challenge →