Knife cut noodles tossed with a creamy blended cottage cheese gochujang sauce and topped with crispy sesame ground beef crumbles. One serving has 40g protein with only 8g fat and 500 calories. And it takes about 20 minutes from start to finish, making it a perfect high protein meal to make on busy weeknights.
Ingredients and Substitutions
As you can see in the ingredient photo below, you can pick up everything you need from Trader Joe’s. But don’t let that deter you from making these noodles if you’re without access to a TJ’s. Everything is pretty standard fare with plenty of alternatives from any grocery store. I’ll walk you through the key points below.
Trader Joe’s Squiggly Knife Cut Style Noodles
This is the fourth recipe I’ve made in recent weeks using Trader Joe’s knife cut noodles. (Honey Garlic Chicken Noodles and Hoisin Beef Noodles) Feel free to use any instant noodles, but it’s worth mentioning the TJ’s noodles come with “soy and sesame” sauce packets.
Momofuku soy and scallion noodles have a similar sauce packet, and I’m sure there are others. But from what I can tell based on the ingredient list for the TJ’s noodles, adding a few teaspoons of toasted sesame oil and soy sauce to the other sauce ingredients in my recipe should get you close enough.
Creamy Gochujang Sauce
Blended cottage cheese sauces have grown on me. You just have to blend it with the right things. Like gochujang, for example.
If you want to go dairy free, both the noodle recipes I mentioned above combine a sauced protein with crisped coleslaw mix and reserved pasta water. They’re not as creamy as these gochujang noodles, but it’s an option. The reduced fat coconut milk from my TJ’s broth bowls may also be a cottage cheese alternative.
And I think those are the two biggest components worth covering swaps for. If you have a question about other ingredients or anything else, don’t hesitate to drop it in the comments section below.
Otherwise, I hope you love these noodles. Recipe reviews are appreciated if you do. 🙂
Hope to cook together again soon! – Mason
Creamy Gochujang Noodles
Ingredients
For the Noodles
- 3 packs Trader Joe's Knife Cut Noodles see notes from substitutions
- 1 cup Low Fat Cottage Cheese
- ¼ cup (84g) Gochujang
- ¼ cup Water
For the Crispy Beef
- 1 pound Ground Beef 96% lean
- 3 Sauce Packets from the Noodles
- 2 Tablespoons Maple Syrup
- 1 Tablespoon Coconut Aminos or Low Sodium Soy Sauce
- 1 Tablespoon Rice Vinegar
- 4 Green Onions thinly sliced, green and white parts separated
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil for the noodles.
- Blend the cottage cheese, gochujang, and water together until smooth. Set aside.
- Mix the sauce packets, maple syrup, coconut aminos, rice vinegar, and white parts of the sliced green onions together. Set aside.
- Brown and fully cook the ground beef in a pan over medium-high heat. Add the sauce to the cooked ground beef and stir everything together. Cook for another 2-3 untouched until the sauce thickens and begins to caramelize on the bottom. (Start cooking the noodles after adding the sauce to the cooked beef.)
- Cook the noodles for 4 minutes. Reserve about ½ cup of the water and set aside before draining the rest. Add the drained noodles to the pot with the blended gochujang sauce. Toss together, using the reserved pasta water as needed to bring everything together.
- Top with the crispy beef, remaining sliced green onion, and toasted sesame seeds.
