I bring these to parties, family get-togethers, and sometimes I just make a batch to pack into serving containers for quick lunches. I haven't met anyone who doesn't enjoy these!
UPDATE on 4/6/2020: I have changed some ingredient recommendations and steps on this post. These changes are noted in orange.
Prep Time: 10 Minutes
Cook Time: 10 Minutes
Chill Time: 2.5-3 Hours
Total Time: 2.5-3 Hours and 20 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Dietary Needs: Vegan
Ingredients:
1 lb spaghetti, strands broken in half
3/4 cup soy sauce
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 tsp red chili flakes (to taste, can add more or less)
1/2 TBSP sriracha or other chili paste (such as Sambal Oelek) (to taste, can add more or less)
1 tsp garlic powder (to taste, can add more or less) OR 1 tbsp minced garlic (I recommend fresh or jarred garlic, over powdered)
1/2 - 1 TBSP freshly grated ginger (if using powdered, about 1/4-1/2 tsp) (can omit if you don't like ginger, you heathen) (I recommend fresh, or refrigerated paste, over powdered)
1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds
1 tbsp neutral flavored oil (vegetable, sunflower, avocado, etc.)
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 bunch green onions, green parts only (Chefs say to use all parts of the green onion now, and so I do. You should too! Or plant the white parts in a lil water and grow those greens back!)
Instructions:
Start your water boiling; cook spaghetti according to package directions, al dente. Do not let your pasta become too soft!
After starting water to boil, immediately start your sauce. Combine all sauce ingredients, except for oils and sesame seeds, in medium sauce pan. After sugar has melted, drizzle in oils while whisking briskly (as if you were making a home-made salad dressing); this will help the oil emulsify properly and not just sit on top of the sauce. (To be honest it's really hard to get the oil to fully incorporate; this doesn't really matter too much. Just give your sauce a quick whisk before combining with your noodles.) No need to bring to a boil; as soon as sugar is melted and all ingredients are well incorporated, take off stove and set aside, preferably in a heat safe glass container, such as a large pyrex measuring cup. This will help the sauce cool faster.
I had old instructions for steps 3-5; they are at the bottom of this post. I no longer use the method described; it is up to you! You will need a very large bowl for sauce and noodles combining/tossing/cooling. Pour your sauce into this bowl and when the spaghetti is ready, drain and toss in. Do not rinse the pasta. Add your sesame seeds at this point.
Toss all noodles with sauce. Leave your noodles on the counter in their bowl for approximately 15 minutes, stirring every 3-5 minutes. Then leave your noodles on the counter for an additional 30 minutes, stirring every 10-15.
Once your noodles are evenly tossed and there is much less sauce sitting in the bottom of the bowl (reduced in volume by at least half), cover your bowl tightly with plastic wrap, and place in fridge. I suggest stirring every 20-30 minutes until you see no sauce in the bottom of the bowl. If you're not too fussy, you can ignore them, but I find that until I can't see any more sauce, not keeping the noodles moving can make them a bit unevenly flavored.
Chop up your green onions while noodles are chilling; set them aside. I usually put them back in the fridge so they stay crisp.
When all noodles are cold (usually around 2.5-3 hours; longer for a double batch), and sauce absorbed, toss with green onions. Add more sesame seeds if you'd like. Serve right away! These noodles stay good for at least 3-4 days before they lose quality... but they never last that long!
Here are the old steps for saucing/storing the noodles while they absorb the liquid. Bags ARE convenient b/c there's no stirring involved, only squeezing/squishing. It's also less messy and takes up less room. But it's more wasteful, it's hard to get the pasta into the freezer bag, and it just is kind of useless. You live you learn. Old instructions:
Get two 1-gallon freezer bags. Put one inside the other, and use a bowl to prop them up. It can help to fold back the zipper part, to keep them open.
Put the sauce in the bottom of the inner bag. Work as quickly as you can to add the noodles to the inner bag, so they don't stick together. I usually use a combination of a pasta server and silicone tipped tongs to dig out as many strands as possible, before draining the stragglers in a colander and adding to the bag.
Do not close the bags yet. Make sure all the noodles have touched some of the sauce; this will keep them from sticking. Use those aforementioned tongs to toss the noodles in the sauce.
Wait to close the bags until the noodles have stopped steaming. (10-15 minutes.) Then close your bags, pushing out the excess air.
Squish the sauce all around, and lay your bag out flat. You want a bag shaped square of noodles. Place in the fridge, preferably toward the bottom/back, as that's the coldest.
Flip the noodles every 30 minutes, 3 times. After that, the sauce should be fairly well distributed and the noodles can be left alone.
Full disclosure; the photo was taken several years a go, before I perfected my recipe. I have increased my measurements for the sauce, so your noodles will probably appear darker and have a slightly increased oil sheen. In this picture, sesame seeds were also added during the final toss, so they are not marinated with the sauce, and therefore white in the photo. I hate it when my recipe doesn't turn out the way I thought it would, so I thought I'd mention it!