Cooling Soba Salad

Whenever it gets unbearably hot, nothing but this salad sounds good to me. Every time I have it, it has the magical ability to cool down my body.. or that’s what it feels like its doing.

It’s overall a very quick dish to make, and it doesn’t require many techniques apart from boiling noodles and cutting cucumber. The dressing is creamy, light, and nutty which complements both the soba noodles and cucumber.

I like to make this salad and pop it in the fridge until I’m ready to eat it so that it’s as cold as possible. Sometimes after chilling, the dressing seizes up a little, all you need to do is add a sprinkle of water and mix the salad again, it’ll go right back to creamy in no time.

serves: 4-5 people

prep/cooking time: 10-15 minutes

Ingredients

250g Soba noodles

1 cup or 1/2 a cucumber, diced

1/4 tsp of chilli flakes or 1 mild chilli, sliced thin

1/2 cup of spring onion greens, sliced into 2 cm pieces

3 tbsp unseasoned rice vinegar

1 tbsp soy sauce or tamari

3 tbsp tahini

1/2 tsp toasted sesame oil

1 tsp honey

1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds (white, black or both)

Method

1. In a big bowl, add the rice vinegar, soy sauce or tamari, tahini, sesame oil and honey. Whisk together until it forms a uniform creamy dressing.

2. Add your cucumber, chilli and spring onions to the dressing.

3. In a pot of boiling cook the soba noodles according to package instructions. Drain and rinse the noodles in cold water until the soba is cold to the touch.

4. Add the noodles into the bowl with the veggies and dressing, toss together until everything is evenly coated. Season with salt to your liking, and eat right away or cover and put it in the fridge until you’re ready to eat it.