Sweet Potato Noodles With Cashew Sauce

For more healthy and delicious recipes with sweet potatoes, try our sweet potato pad Thai and sweet potato noodle stir fry with Thai peanut lime sauce If this is your first time making sweet potato noodles, you’re in for a treat. They’re colorful, flavorful, and filling without being heavy. You can cover them in your favorite sauce and pretend like it’s pasta while benefiting from all the added nutrients. This is a relatively simple dish, so the Asian-inspired cashew cream sauce adds an important element. It’s so creamy that people are often surprised there’s no dairy in it!
These sweet potato noodles are perfect for those times when you’re craving lots of veggies but don’t feel like a salad. It’s a vibrant, low-stress, gluten-free meal that kids love, too! Here’s everything you need for the Asian-inspired sriracha cilantro cashew sauce:

Raw cashews – it’s important to use raw unsalted cashews when making cashew sauce. If you have a high-speed blender, you don’t need to soak them. That said, if you’ve got the time, soaking the cashews in hot water for 30 minutes will result in a silky smooth sauce. Cilantro – cilantro adds a fresh pop of flavor and gives this sauce its light green color. You can swap it for parsley if you’re not a cilantro fan. Nutritional yeast – nutritional yeast is a savory food seasoning with a cheese-like taste. It’s a versatile vegan ingredient most commonly used in sauces. If it’s not an ingredient you keep in your pantry, you can swap it for grated parmesan cheese. Sriracha – sriracha gives this sauce flavor and a kick of heat. Feel free to omit it for a non-spicy version. Rice vinegar – rice vinegar is less acidic than most vinegar and has a mild, slightly sweet Asian flavor. Soy sauce – soy sauce is notorious for its umami flavor, giving this sauce some salty complexity and a hint of sweetness. You can use tamari, coconut aminos, or a gluten-free soy sauce instead if needed. Sea salt – sea salt works as a flavor enhancer to bring out all the wonderful flavors.

Here’s what you need for the sweet potato noodles:

Olive oil – extra-virgin olive oil is what we use for sautéing the cherry tomatoes. Cherry tomatoes – we use cherry tomatoes but you can also use grape tomatoes or another small tomato variety. Sweet potatoes – sweet potatoes make delicious, hearty noodles. You can use a julienne peeler if that’s what you’ve got on hand but a real spiralizer like this one works wonders with firmer vegetables to give you long curly noodles. You can also look for sweet potato noodles in bags in the produce section of your grocery store. Spinach leaves – baby spinach leaves are tender and wilt quickly which is why we like them for this recipe. Feel free to use other greens like kale or chard as well. Toasted cashews and cilantro – a few chopped toasted cashews and fresh cilantro, for serving.

You’ll also need a julienne peeler or a spiralizer for the sweet potato noodles, and a high-speed blender for the sauce.

If you were wondering how to make sweet potato noodles that are long and spiral-y, here are a few helpful tips:

Get yourself a real spiralizer like this one. It works well for all sorts of vegetables from soft vegetables like zucchini to firmer vegetables like beets, butternut squash, and sweet potatoes. A julienne peeler still works in a pinch but it requires more effort and the noodles will be straight and often short. You don’t need to boil the sweet potato noodles, just sauté them for a few minutes in a non-stick pan. A non-stick pan is important because they will stick like crazy to a traditional pan. Be careful not to overcook the noodles. You want them to be tender-crisp, but not soft and mushy. Toss them lightly with tongs to mix with the sauce, being careful not to break them.

These sweet potato noodles with cashew cream sauce are a complete vegan meal that’s perfect for busy weeknights. But they also work well as a hearty Asian-inspired side dish with a variety of mains like our Thai marinated chicken or slow baked Asian salmon.

They’re a great dish for dinner parties, picnics, or potlucks when you know there will be some vegan or gluten-free eaters attending!