Every time I see a new recipe for  sesame peanut noodles, I feel compelled to try it.  Somewhere out there, I know, is the elusive sauce with the ideal balance of lively spice and creamy texture that turns cold noodles and fresh vegetables into a feast.

Most of the recipes I’ve made, however, tend to turn out bland, stodgy and gloppy.  Once the sauce joins the cooled noodles, it congeals and becomes almost impossible to toss with the pasta.

For years, my best bet was Nina Simonds’ rainbow peanut noodle salad from “Asian Noodles” (Hearst Books, 1997).  It was always a hit at potlucks and summer picnics with its creamy dressing and generous helpings of crisp vegetables, but it lacked the spark I craved.  I wanted the undercurrent of lime and tingle of chile that make Thai cuisine so irresistible.

During an extremely hot spell this month, though, I began experimenting with my own sauce, bumping up the heat with ginger and red chile sauce (I like sriracha in the plastic squeeze bottle with a rooster on it) while introducing the zing of fresh lime juice.  The ingredients are available in most supermarkets.

For the noodles, I’ve taken a tip from Simonds and used linguine or spaghetti rather than the usual Chinese egg noodles.  The pasta is a little firmer and stands up to the heavy sauce without getting soggy.  Whole wheat spaghetti works very well.

I’ve dumped the raw mung bean sprouts typical to most sesame peanut noodle recipes because I don’t like their starchy flavor and introduced a lot of cilantro, which I adore.  If you’re someone for whom cilantro leaves a soapy aftertaste, just substitute parsley.

The vegetables blend better with the noodles if you slice them into thin julienne strips.  The easiest way is to use a special peeler, which produces slender strings of the carrots and cucumbers, but an inexpensive Asian mandoline also does the trick if your knife skills are a little weak.

At last, I have a recipe that satisfies all my cravings.  The search is over.