Thai Chicken Pasta Salad
One tablespoon of peanut butter holds this entire salad together. Whisked with hot water, garlic, soy sauce, Sriracha, honey, and lime, it becomes the Thai dressing that coats shredded chicken, carrot ribbons, bell pepper, edamame, and cold whole wheat penne. 46g protein, 16g fiber, 655 kcal in a bowl that takes twenty minutes.
That dressing is also the only fat in the meal. Raw carrots and bell pepper carry loads of beta-carotene, but a 2004 crossover trial found that raw vegetable salads eaten with fat-free dressing produced near-zero carotenoid absorption. The roughly 10g of fat from peanut butter clears the threshold where your body starts pulling those nutrients out of the plant cells and into the bloodstream.
One tablespoon of peanut butter holds this entire salad together. Whisked with hot water, garlic, soy sauce, Sriracha, honey, and lime, it becomes the Thai dressing that coats shredded chicken, carrot ribbons, bell pepper, edamame, and cold whole wheat penne. 46g protein, 16g fiber, 655 kcal in a bowl that takes twenty minutes.
That dressing is also the only fat in the meal. Raw carrots and bell pepper carry loads of beta-carotene, but a 2004 crossover trial found that raw vegetable salads eaten with fat-free dressing produced near-zero carotenoid absorption. The roughly 10g of fat from peanut butter clears the threshold where your body starts pulling those nutrients out of the plant cells and into the bloodstream.
Ingredients
- chicken breast 3 ounces
- vegetable bouillon 1 cube
- penne, whole wheat 3 ounces
- edamame 2 ounces
- carrot 1
- bell pepper 1
- cucumber 0.25
- red onion 0.25
- garlic 1 clove
- peanut butter 1 tablespoon
- vinegar 1 teaspoon
- soy sauce 0.5 tablespoon
- honey 1 teaspoon
- Sriracha sauce 0.5 teaspoon
- lime juice 1 squeeze
Method
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Cook the chicken breast in a large pan of water with the bouillon cube for about 15 minutes, or until cooked through. Remove the chicken from the pan, let it cool slightly, and shred with two forks.
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Cook the penne according to the package directions until al dente. Rinse under cold water and drain well.
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Rinse the edamame in a colander under cold water and let drain. Use a vegetable peeler to make carrot ribbons. Thinly slice the bell pepper, cut the cucumber into diagonal slices, and thinly slice the onion.
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In a large bowl, combine the vegetables, shredded chicken, and pasta.
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Mince the garlic and whisk together with the peanut butter, hot water, vinegar, soy sauce, honey, and Sriracha in a small bowl until smooth. Pour the dressing over the salad, drizzle with lime juice, and season with salt and pepper. Toss well to combine.
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Serve the pasta salad in a deep bowl.
Whisk the peanut butter with hot water first before adding the vinegar, soy sauce, and Sriracha. The heat loosens the peanut butter into a smooth emulsion that coats every ribbon and leaf evenly. Cold water leaves it lumpy, and lumpy dressing means uneven fat distribution across the raw vegetables.
The carrot ribbons and bell pepper in this salad are packed with beta-carotene, a precursor your body converts to vitamin A. But beta-carotene is fat-soluble and locked inside plant cell walls. A crossover trial found that when people ate raw vegetable salads with fat-free dressing, carotenoid absorption was essentially zero. The peanut butter in this dressing provides about 10g of fat, clearing the threshold the researchers identified for meaningful absorption.
Raw vegetable carotenoid absorption requires dietary fat · DOIBehind this recipe
Why is there peanut butter in a pasta salad?
The peanut butter is the base of a Thai-style dressing. Whisked with hot water, soy sauce, Sriracha, garlic, honey, vinegar, and lime, it becomes a smooth, tangy sauce. It also happens to be the only fat source in this meal. A 2004 crossover trial found that raw vegetable salads eaten without fat produced near-zero carotenoid absorption. The fat from peanut butter is what makes the beta-carotene in the carrot ribbons and bell pepper accessible to your body.
Can I use almond butter or tahini instead?
Yes. The dressing needs fat to help absorb beta-carotene from the raw vegetables. Almond butter has a similar fat content (about 9g per tablespoon) and works as a direct swap. Tahini also works, though the flavor shifts from Thai-peanut toward Middle Eastern. The key is keeping some fat in the dressing rather than replacing it with a fat-free alternative.
Where does all the protein come from?
Three sources. Chicken breast (84g, roughly 25g protein), edamame (56g, roughly 7g), and whole wheat penne (84g dry, roughly 12g). The rest comes from smaller contributions across the vegetables and dressing. The total, 46g, comes from the full plate working together.
