Thai Pumpkin Pasta with chicken option)
25 Minute Spicy Thai Pumpkin Noodles (with chicken option) are quick and easy to whip up and smothered in the most tantalizing spicy peanut pumpkin sauce that you will want to make year round!
Servings 6 servings
Ingredients
- 1 pound chicken breasts cut into thin slices, (2-3 chicken breasts)**
- 12 oz. thin spaghetti or soba noodles
- 1 tablespoon red curry paste
- 2 teaspoons freshly grated ginger
- 1 small zucchini, thinly sliced
- 1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
- 1/2 cup Matchstick carrots
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 cup Snow peas, trimmed
- 1/4 cup smooth peanut butter
Thai Pumpkin Sauce
- 1/4 cup reduced sodium soy sauce
- 1 cup water
- 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
- 1 tablespoon lime juice
- 1 tablespoons fish sauce
- 2 tablespoons sweet Japanese rice wine, mirin or dry sherry
- 3 tablespoons brown sugar
- 2-3 teaspoons Sriracha/Asian hot red chili sauce
- 1 teaspoon dried basil (or 1/4 cup lightly packed fresh basil)
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
Garnish
- fresh cilantro
- lime juice
- Crushed salted peanuts
- pomegranate arils (optional)
Instructions
- Cook noodles according to package directions. Drain and set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together Spicy Pumpkin Sauce Ingredients. Set aside.
- Heat 1 tablespoon olive/coconut oil over high heat in a large nonstick skillet. Add chicken and stir fry for 1-2 minutes or until almost cooked through (it will finish cooking in sauce). Remove chicken to a separate plate.
- Heat an additional 2 tablespoons oil over medium high heat in the same pan. Add red curry, ginger and zucchini and stir fry for 2 minutes. Add bell pepper and carrots and stir fry 2 more minutes. Add garlic and saute 30 seconds.
- Add Thai Pumpkin Sauce, snow peas and chicken and simmer until slightly thickened and chicken is cooked through. Stir in peanut butter.
- Add noodles and toss until evenly coated, adding additional water if sauce has become to thick. Taste and add additional Sriracha if desired. Garnish with cilantro, lime juice, peanuts and pomegranate arils (optional).
Notes
TIPS FOR PUMPKIN PASTA
- Cook your pasta al dente - no one wants mushy Pumpkin Pasta! I rinse my pasta with cold water to keep it from cooking and toss it with a little olive oil to keep it from sticking.
- For maximum efficiency, use the time while the noodles are cooking to whisk together your Pumpkin Pasta Sauce ingredients.
- Use Pumpkin puree and NOT pumpkin pie filling. Pumpkin puree is 100% pure pumpkin that has been cooked and pureed. Pumpkin Pie filling, however, has been sweetened and seasoned with Fall spices.
- Have your Pumpkin Pasta Sauce ready and all your chicken and veggies chopped before you start cooking because the actual cooking process is super quick and you want everything ready to go at your fingertips.
- **It is much easier to thinly slice your chicken when it is partially frozen, that way it is not squirming all underneath you.
- If you don’t like heat at all, start with 1 teaspoon Sriracha. I would say 2 teaspoons Sriracha is medium heat and 3 is on the spicy side. I would start with less if you aren't sure because you can always add more heat at the end of cooking - but it is hard to take it away!
- Taste your Pumpkin Pasta at the end of cooking and add additional lime juice for tangier, sugar for sweeter, soy sauce for saltier.
- After you toss your Pumpkin Pasta in the sauce, you may wan to add additional water to thin to desired consistency.
- Garnish, garnish, garnish! Crunchy peanuts, cilantro, and pomegranate arils make this Thai Pumpkin Pasta come alive!