Soba Noodle Salad
Serves 4 as a side.
Soba noodles are Japanese buckwheat noodles. While the traditional soba noodle contains wheat, I recently found absolutely delicious, organic, gluten-free soba noodles from King Soba. When cooked properly these noodles have a texture that is firm, slightly chewy and just wonderful.
Recipe
Order of preparation
Make the teriyaki sauce.
Prep your veggies.
Cook the veggies.
Cook the soba.
Toss it all together with scallions and toasted sesame seeds.
Ingredients: Listed in the order you will make the dish.
Teriyaki Sauce: the recipe will most likely give you a little more than you need for the noodles. You can grill up some chicken, fish or tofu and put the sauce on that which will be a good compliment to the meal. Save any extra in a bottle in your fridge. It keeps for at least a week or more.
Two sauce recipes follow: one recipe with soy, one without.
Veggies
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1/4 lb fresh shiitake mushrooms, stemmed and sliced finely
2 medium carrots, julienne. If you can get them, rainbow carrots add a beautiful assortment of colors to the dish.
dash of shoyu, gluten-free tamari or coconut aminos
sea salt – to taste
Soba Noodles
1 package organic soba noodles – please read the information at the end of the recipe for choosing soba noodles and how to cook them – or you might have an awful mess on your hands!
Many traditional soba noodles are tied into little bundles, three to a pack. Make sure to open the bundles before you start to cook the noodles. Soba cooks so quickly that you don’t want to be taking the time to open the second bundle when you already have the first bundle cooking. (as I always say – there’s a reason I know this!)
Add at end
2 scallions, sliced finely
2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds
Teriyaki Sauce – with soy
1/4 cup organic shoyu or gluten-free tamari
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons agave syrup (or sweetener of your choice)
2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon minced ginger (I often grate the ginger on a microplane)
1 to 2 limes, juiced. Taste with juice of 1 lime first. Add more if you want the lime flavor more potent.
Whisk together all ingredients. That’s it. If you like, coarsely chop the garlic, ginger and scallion then put all ingredients in a small measuring cup and use an immersion blender to blend all the ingredients.
Gluten and Soy-Free Teriyaki Sauce
1/2 cup organic coconut aminos
2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon minced ginger (I often grate the ginger on a microplane)
1 to 2 limes, juiced. Taste with juice of 1 lime first. Add more if you want the lime flavor more potent.
Salt to taste
Whisk together all ingredients. That’s it. If you like, coarsely chop the garlic, ginger and scallion then put all ingredients in a small measuring cup and use an immersion blender to blend all the ingredients.
Make the soba salad
Ok – now, put a pot of water on to boil with a bit of salt for the soba noodles.
Then cook the veggies:
Using a small skillet over a medium heat, add the tablespoon of sesame oil (you can use a mild tasting olive oil if that’s all you have). When the oil is hot, add the shiitake mushrooms. Season with your choice of either shoyu (soy sauce), gf tamari or coconut aminos. Stir regularly, add a splash of water if they start to stick.
When the shiitake are well cooked (just a couple of minutes), add the carrots and a pinch of sea salt. Stir well, add a splash of water to prevent sticking and cover. Cook on a medium heat, stirring regularly, until the carrots are cooked but still have a crunch to them – this should take at the most another 5 minutes. Season with salt and shoyu/tamari/aminos to taste. Turn off heat and leave cover off so the carrots don’t over cook.
When that pot of water comes to a boil with a bit of salt in it, add the soba noodles and stir, stir, stir. See instructions below for cooking soba noodles.
When noodles are done, drain and rinse with cold water. Put in a bowl and toss in the veggies. Add the teriyaki sauce to taste, scallion and a handful of toasted sesame seeds.
Variations: If you’d like a little heat in the sauce add a bit of either shiricha, hot pepper sesame oil or a bit of minced jalapeño to the sauce.
Enjoy!
A note about soba noodles – traditional soba noodles not gluten-free since they contain both wheat and buckwheat flours. There are several brands of organic soba noodles on the market that are just lovely.
Green colored mugwort soba is just delicious, ita soba is a skinny, skinny noodle and then there’s just regular ol’ soba noodles.
To cook: bring a few quarts of water to a boil, add a bit of salt, add the noodles to the boiling water and stir a few times so they don’t stick together. Cook the noodles till al dente. Soba noodles tend to cook rather quickly. Often they are done as soon as the water comes back to a boil. Drain into a colander when done and run cold water over the noodles.
You can also find gluten-free, 100% soba noodles, but I have never had success cooking those so they don’t get mushy and fall apart.
And then there’s King Soba brand soba noodles – which as you can tell are my current favorite.
How to cook King Soba brand soba noodles for this dish:
Don’t cook these noodles as long as the package says. Bring a pot of water to a boil and add a little bit of salt. Put the noodles into the boiling water and stir, stir, stir or they will stick together. Cook for only 2 1/2 minutes, stirring every so often. The noodles will still taste raw. Drain into a colander and rinse with cold water. Then add to the already cooked veggies and season with teriyaki sauce.
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Complimentary dishes for this meal would be my teriyaki salmon or, for vegetarians – tofu teriyaki, or some simple grilled or pan seared chicken.
If you want to keep the dish simple forget the whole teriyaki recipe for salmon or tofu, just cook the fish or pan sear the tofu and add the extra sauce you didn’t use on the noodles.
Some steamed veggies like broccoli on the side and you’re good to go for a complete meal.
