Sesame Ground Beef Peanut Noodles

These sesame ground beef peanut noodles come together in just 45 minutes with a seriously delicious creamy peanut sauce you’ll want to put on everything!

Noodles you’ll crave every week.

• This one’s a total weeknight win. The beef and broccoli cook together in one pan, while you boil the ramen for a couple minutes and whisk together a simple peanut sauce.
• Salty, savory ground beef, tender broccoli, and slurpy ramen noodles all tangled up in a creamy peanut-sesame sauce, finished with crunchy peanuts, fresh herbs, and a squeeze of lime. It’s the kind of meal you’ll be thinking about the next day.

Here’s what you’ll need.

Here’s how it all comes together.

COOK RAMEN. Boil the ramen for just 2 minutes, drain, toss immediately with 1 teaspoon sesame oil, and set aside.

COOK BEEF. Brown the ground beef in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat, seasoning with salt and pepper. Drain the fat, drizzle with 1 teaspoon sesame oil, and cook another minute until fully cooked through.

COOK BROCCOLI. Remove the beef with a slotted spoon and sauté the broccoli in the drippings for 4-5 minutes, until tender.

ADD AROMATICS. Reduce the heat to medium-low and stir in the garlic and ginger, cooking for about 30 seconds until fragrant.

DEGLAZE PAN. Add the soy sauce and rice vinegar, scraping up all the browned bits from the bottom of the pan.

MAKE PEANUT SAUCE. Whisk together the peanut sauce ingredients in a medium bowl, then adjust to taste.

FINISH IT UP. Add the cooked beef, ramen, and half the peanut sauce.

STIR + SEASON. Stir until everything’s coated and heated through. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

SERVE + ENJOY. Garnish with a drizzle of sesame oil, peanuts, green onion, cilantro, mint, and lime wedges, and serve with the remaining sauce on the side.

Things I learned while testing this recipe.

• Boil the ramen for just 2 minutes and no longer. It keeps cooking as it mingles with the hot beef and sauce in the pan, so slightly undercooked noodles at this stage turn perfectly tender by the time you serve.
• Don’t skip tossing the noodles with sesame oil right after draining. It keeps them from clumping together while everything else finishes cooking.
• Grating the garlic and ginger instead of mincing makes a real difference here. It disappears into the sauce just beautifully. If you don’t have a microplane, just grate it as finely as possible.

This one’s basically built for meal prep.

• The peanut sauce, ground beef, and broccoli all hold up beautifully in the fridge on their own, which makes this an easy one to get ahead of for busy weeknights.
• Make the peanut sauce up to 5 days ahead and keep it in an airtight container in the fridge. Just give it a good whisk (and a splash of water if it’s thickened) before using.
• Cook the beef and broccoli up to 3 days ahead and store separately from the noodles so nothing gets soggy; reheat everything together and toss with freshly cooked ramen and sauce right before serving.

Here’s what I’d serve with these peanut noodles.

• easy chicken lettuce wraps
• sesame chicken pasta salad
• curry coconut chicken skewers
• simple pork dumplings
• cold peanut noodle salad

Just in case you have leftovers.

• STORING: Let leftovers cool, then store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days. If you have extra peanut sauce, keep it in a separate container so the noodles don’t get overly soft as they sit.
• REHEATING: Reheat on the stovetop over medium-low heat with a splash of water or extra soy sauce to loosen the sauce back up, stirring until warmed through. The microwave works in a pinch. Heat in 30-second bursts, stirring between each, until hot.

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