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.
Update: Since publishing this recipe I’ve added chicken broth to the cottage cheese and gochujang to make high protein broth bowls with crispy sesame beef, steamed rice, and cucumber.
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.
Julie
Monday 13th of April 2026
Anything you could swap out for the gochujang sauce? Don’t love spicey.
Mason Woodruff
Monday 13th of April 2026
Maybe something like tomato paste + white miso paste + honey? That way you'd get the fermented flavor, color, and a little sweetness like gochujang without the heat from peppers.
KP
Sunday 12th of April 2026
This recipe was absolute fire! It was easy, filling and so flavorful. Full disclosure: I'm a vegetarian. I made this with crumbled tofu as the protein. This is what I love about your recipes: even as a vegetarian I'm able to modify with an appropriate protein source and love it.
Mason Woodruff
Monday 13th of April 2026
That's cool to read. Thanks for adapting and sharing the idea!
Angie
Tuesday 7th of April 2026
My picky kids loved this! What a nice surprise. Next time, I’ll double the meat and the sauce. I used half of the Gochujang paste. Would love to find noodles that are higher fiber, lower carb.
Tracy
Friday 3rd of April 2026
I want to make this for meal prep. Do you think it will hold well when reheated throughout the week?
Mason Woodruff
Monday 6th of April 2026
I enjoyed my leftovers the next day. I'd say the noodles hold up as well as any other leftover noodle/pasta dish. You could always store the prepared beef and sauce on their own to serve with freshly prepared noodles throughout the week. I might go that route for future batches if I decided to make a double batch.
Jenna Davis
Tuesday 31st of March 2026
SO YUMMY!!!! Used Costco knife cut style noodles and it was so so filling and so so good. Husband approved too!
Mason Woodruff
Thursday 2nd of April 2026
I didn't realize Costco had knife cut noodles. I'll have to go check them out. Thanks for the tip!