Udon Noodles in Peanut Butter Sauce

Some slurping noises are encouraged when eating these noodles. According to Japanese custom it's okay to do so and supposedly makes it taste better. Though if you are a peanut butter lover you're going to enjoy these saucy noodles whether you slurp or not -- I just wanted you not to feel bad if you did! It's a simple dish but it does take a bit of time and prep to get it all together. I bought fresh Mr. Noodles Udon Noodles at Save-On Foods. They contain only three ingredients -- flour, water and salt.

1 package of fresh Udon Noodles
1 broccoli crown
1 onion, diced
garlic, 2 cloves
175 gm extra firm tofu, cubed

Instructions
#1 - Boil udon noodles in some water infused with a few teaspoons of veggie broth powder. Drain (save the water) add 2 teaspoons of margarine, cover and set aside.
#2 - Separate broccoli into bite size pieces. Cook/steam your broccoli in the water you saved from step #1 above. Now drain off the water from the broccoli and save this again (it will be used in your peanut sauce). Cover, and set broccoli aside.
#3 - Cube tofu and saute in pan along with the diced onion and 2 cloves garlic. Add some paul bragg and stir fry until everything is nicely cooked and browned. Now it's time to make your sauce.

1 cup water (saved from #2 above)
4 tablespoons peanut butter
2-3 teaspoons chili powder
2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 teaspoons sugar
2 tablespoons teriyaki sauce
2 tablespoons szechuan sauce
juice of 1/2 lemon

Stir and heat all the sauce ingredients together in a saucepan over medium heat for about a minute or two. Now combine your noodles, broccoli and tofu in a large bowl and pour over your peanut sauce. Sauce thickens slightly as it sits and/or cools.
Veggie Prairie Girl Rambles
This stuff is so delicious -- you can eat it hot or cold! I love it either way. Of course I just might be one of the biggest peanut butter lovers out there. My favorite sandwich growing up, and that I have not grown out of, was peanut butter and jam. I'd be happy to eat that for breakfast, lunch, supper or in between. This has got me on a roll -- now I want to make some massive-sized peanut butter cookies that melt in your mouth like shortbread. Or some peanut butter rice krispie squares? Or maybe a peanut butter soy milk shake? Isn't peanut butter one of the most wonderfully versatile food products ever? I am so lucky that I have no family members who are allergic to it but if you do there is a new soybutter called SchoolSafe Soybutter that is supposed to be so close to peanut butter in smell, taste and texture that you won’t believe it’s not peanut butter. Interesting indeed -- I'd be curious to try it that's for sure. It's slated for availability, on some Canadian supermarket shelves (like Sobey's, Walmart, A&P), in February of 2010.