Recipe: Spicy Nut Butter-Noodle Salad

A food freedom recipe from Kat Ashmore's new cookbook, BIG BITES: TIME TO EAT! (with Whole30 modifications and my suggestions)

This is the very first recipe I’ve ever shared in my newsletter, and I chose carefully. Kat Ashmore is a dear friend, a force in health and wellness, and a talented home chef. Kat is famous for her “Hungry Lady Salads,” and with this recipe, she proves that a hearty, delicious salad doesn’t need lettuce.

This Spicy Nut Butter-Noodle Salad is one of my favorite recipes from her newest cookbook, BIG BITES: TIME TO EAT! It’s gluten-free, dairy-free, and can easily be made soy-free, grain-free, and free from added sugar. I’ve included Whole30 modifications below, too.

Let me know whether you want more recipes in the comments! I have so many talented friends, and I’d love to share their favorite meals with you here.

Spicy Nut Butter-Noodle Salad

from BIG BITES: TIME TO EAT! by Kat Ashmore

Here are spicy, luscious, slurpable takeout-style noodles you can make at home, and preferably eat them on your lap while watching a Netflix movie. The cucumber and roasted nuts are added here for crunch and freshness (which also means it qualifies as a salad, right?).

I use a mandoline to get paper-thin slices of cucumber, but feel free to use a sharp knife. Do slice the cucumber into rounds rather than dice it, so the cucumber can be picked up along with the noodles for each bite; that works better than watching the diced cucumber sink to the bottom of the bowl.

Makes 6 servings • Cook time: 4-10 minutes

SPICY DRESSING

• 2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil

• ¼ cup smooth almond or peanut butter

• ¼ cup soy sauce

• 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar

• Zest and juice of 1 lime

• 1 tablespoon honey

• 2 to 3 teaspoons sriracha (or chile-garlic paste)

• 1 garlic clove, grated

NOODLE SALAD

• 1 pound dried rice noodles (with spaghetti thickness)

• 1 medium English cucumber, very thinly sliced on a mandoline

• 2 large carrots, grated

• 2 scallions (white and green parts), thinly sliced

• ¼ cup chopped roasted cashews

• Kosher salt

To make the dressing: In a large bowl, combine the toasted sesame oil, almond butter, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, lime zest and juice, honey, sriracha, and garlic. Whisk until smooth and well combined. Set aside.

To make the salad: Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Cook the noodles according to package instructions (mine are usually 4 minutes). Drain and rinse under cold water, shaking off any excess.

Transfer the noodles to the bowl with the dressing. Toss the noodles immediately with the dressing to prevent them from sticking to each other. Then add the cucumber, carrots, scallions, and cashews, and toss to combine once more. Season with salt to taste and serve.

MU’s notes

Here are my tips for making this salad:

• A mandoline gets your cucumber slices uniformly slim. Here’s the one I have. It’s adjustable in terms of the thickness of your chop, and it has built-in safety features so you don’t shred your knuckles.

• If you need to make this nut-free, you can use sunflower seed butter in the dressing and sub sunflower seeds for the cashews.

• I add protein to this salad to make a complete meal. I love it with shrimp, shredded or chopped chicken, or ground turkey. Cook your protein separately (or buy it pre-cooked), then mix it with the veggies before you dress with the sauce so it all gets coated in that nutty goodness.

• If you wanted to add even more veggies, you could use julienned red bell pepper, mung bean sprouts, sugar snap or snow peas (cut on the bias), or shredded red cabbage.

• Double the sauce, trust. You may want more if you’re adding protein, but it also makes a delicious dip for raw veggies. Store extra dressing in an air-tight container in the fridge for 7-10 days.

Whole30 modifications

It’s easy to make this delicious noodle salad Whole30-compatible! Here are the substitutions or omissions you’d make during elimination:

• Use unsweetened almond butter in the dressing

• Use coconut aminos in place of soy sauce in the dressing

• Omit the honey in the dressing

• Ensure your sriracha or chile-garlic paste (in the dressing) is Whole30-compatible

• Use veggie noodles (zucchini, butternut squash, spaghetti squash, sweet potato) in place of rice noodles

If you wanted to use this recipe for your Whole30 reintroduction, here’s what you could add back in, keeping the other Whole30 modifications from above:

• Use sweetened almond sunflower seed butter and honey for Added Sugar day

• Use unsweetened peanut butter and soy sauce for Legume day (you could even add pan-fried tofu, steamed edamame, or roasted chickpeas)

• Use rice noodles for Non-Gluten Grain day

• Use whole wheat pasta for Gluten Grain day

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Excerpted from BIG BITES: TIME TO EAT! By Kat Ashmore. Copyright © 2026 by Kat Ashmore. Used by permission of Rodale Books, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York. All Right reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.