I found a great vegetarian recipe in a Moosewood cookbook, and it's
quickly become a favorite: to the point where I'm eating it three
meals a day for days on end. Now, just for my peace of mind, I need to
answer the little question I've been avoiding thus far . . . like, is
it healthy, or is it a total fat and cholesterol bomb?

Here's my variation of the recipe. Boil 18 oz of udon until done.
Chop four red peppers and eight green onions, and grate five carrots.
Chop a pound of green beans; boil until crisp/tender. Julienne a
couple bunches of basil. Make the dressing: 1/2 cup peanut butter,
2/3 cup rice vinegar, 1/2 cup low-sodium soy sauce, 2/3 cup dark sesame
oil, 2 minced garlic cloves, 4 chopped jalapenos (include the seeds of
one or two if you want heat), 1 teaspoon five-spice powder. Mix
everything together, and you've got a vat of tasty salad.

Now, the cookbook says one 8-oz serving has 15.9 grams of fat, 528 mg
sodium, and 25 mg cholesterol. They don't use low-sodium soy sauce, so
hopefully my version is lower sodium-wise -- but the fat and
cholesterol have me worried. Is it all from the sesame oil? Sure,
there's peanut butter in there, but it works out to about a teaspoon
per serving. Surely that can't be *that* bad.

Anyway, can anybody reassure me? Can I make this without guilt? (I
found a couple web pages saying sesame oil is *great* for you, but, you
know, you can find web pages that recommend trepanning.)