Soba Noodle Salad

Another super easy dish for you.  It requires that you have enough culinary skill to boil water and chop veggies, and that is about it.

You can also make it up the day before, to give the flavours a chance to blend.

The recipe says you can use spaghetti noodles in place of soba noodles, but soba noodles are readily available at most grocery stores (check out the Asian aisle, people) and add something to the dish.  I am not saying don't make it with spaghetti noodles:  it will just be a different dish.

The recipe (6 servings):

1 lb dried soba noodles
1/4 c. sesame oil
1/4 c. soy sauce
2 T. sugar
1 1/2 T. balsamic vinegar (again, as I've mentioned before, quality counts)
2 t. salt
1 c. chopped fresh cilantro
8 green onions, thinly sliced
2 T. red or green jalapeno chilies, seeded, veins removed, minced
1 1/2 c. lightly salted dry-roasted peanuts, coarsely chopped (optional as garnish)

Cook the noodles in a large pot of rapidly boiled salted water until just tender but still firm to bit, stirring occasionally.  Drain and rinse with cold water to stop them from cooking further.  Drain well.  Transfer to a large bowl.

Combine sesame oil, soy sauce, sugar, vinegar, and salt.   Stir to dissolve sugar.  Add to noodles.

(You may find, as I did, that you don't need all the sauce.  I had enough to reserve for a second batch of noodles.)

Add cilantro, green onions, and chilies to noodles and mix well.  (I was not able to find fresh cilantro, so had to use this goop-in-a-tube.  It worked, but looked disgusting when I squirted it into a cup to make sure I had enough.)  (Note to self:  plant cilantro this spring!)  I would probably also use red chilies next time, just to add colour.

Mix well.  Sprinkle with peanuts, if desired, or you can sprinkle the peanuts on after serving, or skip the whole peanut thing altogether.

And that is all there is to it!  As you can see, I decided to serve it as a side dish to that salmon I made over the weekend.

The only thing I don't like about this salad is that the little chopped bits have a tendency to settle at the bottom of the plate, so at the end, you have a little pile of scallions and chilies (and peanuts) sitting there.  I might try slicing the vegetables into 2-3" long pieces, then slicing vertically next time, so they stay with the noodles when lifted off the plate.

Some people shy away from jalapenos, but I didn't find them to be hot at all, maybe because I used the green ones.  If you just don't like spicy at all, a red bell pepper would not change the dish much and would be an acceptable substitute.

If, on the other hand, like me, you like your food spicy, these chilies didn't do much.  I am thinking a little dash of chili oil might be in the future for this salad.