Asian style Soba Noodles Salad
涼拌蕎麥麵
Usually hot summer would be after Dragon Boat Festival (14 June this year) but it arrived more than one month earlier this year in Hong Kong. It’s already steamingly hot even after sunset. I don’t have good appetite recently so I make ‘cold noodles/涼麵/冷麵 for dinner. This soba noodles salad is refreshing and packed with loads of vegetable and protein. The dressing is sort of Asian fusion style. There are a bit more chopping and poaching thus I would prepare a bigger portion for lunchbox the other day. Feel free to add more vegetable, such as purple cabbage, tofu sheet, or different mushrooms, and skip any meat or egg if you are vegetarian or vegan. Remember to use vegetarian oyster sauce instead.
What is soba noodle
Buckwheat is pronounced ‘soba’ in Japanese thus soba noodle is Japanese buckwheat noodle. Though buckwheat noodles have been eaten in northern China and Tibet for centuries, it plays more importantly in Japanese and Korean cuisines. In Korean it is called ‘mak-guksu’.
Buckwheat is among one of the superfood; it’s a good source of protein, fiber, vitamins and minerals; it’s beneficial in heart health, weight loss and diabetes. Buckwheat doesn’t contain gluten, it’s GLUTEN FREE! Thus buckwheat dough is hard to knead and roll out like wheat flour dough or rice flour dough.
Buckwheat noodle made with pure buckwheat is rarely seen. Wheat flour is added in most soba noodles in the market and sweet potato starch is added in Korean buckwheat noodles. So if you are in low GI diet like me, make sure you check the nutrition and ingredient information in the package when purchasing, try to obtain those containing bigger percentage of buckwheat.
Ingredients – for 2 serving
- Soba noodles, 150g
- Chicken breast, 1 piece
- Egg, 2
- Cucumber, 1
- Carrot, 1
- Shiitake mushroom, 15
- Spinach, a generous bunch. Here I use spinach with stems and roots, available in Asian grocery stores, if hard to obtain, use salad spinach, but no need to poach
Seasoning ingredients –
- Garlic, 2 cloves
- Thai red chili, 2, optional
- Yuzu juice, 1tbsp. This is also available in Asian grocery store, lemon or lime juice is good enough
- Japanese sesame dressing, 1tbsp
- Light soy sauce, 2tbsp
- Oyster sauce, 1tbsp, or vegetarian oyster sauce
- Toasted sesame seeds, 1tsp
- Seaweed, 1 sheet. I use sushi seaweed, or snack seaweed
How to do –
1. Prepare the ingredients –
Chicken breast pan-fried till cooked, or you could poach or steam it; tear it into shreds when cool down;
Egg scrambled, break into small pieces with chopsticks. Or you could make egg sheet then slice it;
Spinach washed thoroughly, root cut off, then poach them in boiling water for 1 – 2 minutes, drained. If you use salad spinach, no need to cook; squeeze the juice out when cool down, cut to matchsticks;
Shiitake mushroom sliced, stir-fried till golden, seasoned with a nip of salt;
Soba noodles poached in boiling water till soft, then rinsed them in cold water, drained;
Cucumber and carrot shredded, mixed a nip of salt in, this could make them crunchier.
2. Prepare the dressing –
Garlic minced, chili seeds removed and finely chopped;
In a small bowl, put in all seasoning ingredients, also put in the chicken sauce (pan-fried chicken) if there’s any in the pan;
Have a taste and you might adjust with a little more sweet or savoury seasoning (syrup or soy sauce) to your preference.
3. In a deep plate, mix in noodles and other ingredients as many as you want, drizzle the dressing on, and sprinkle some seaweed slices and sesame seeds on, then mix well.
Check my other cold noodles recipes –
Summer Cold Noodles in Lemon Dressing
Hiyashi Chūka / 冷やし中華
用料
- 荞麦面 150克，2人份
- 鸡胸肉 1块
- 鸡蛋 2个
- 黄瓜 1根
- 胡萝卜 1根
- 鲜冬菇 15个
- 菠菜 1把
- 大蒜 2瓣
- 小米辣 2颗
- 柚子汁 1汤匙
- 日式芝麻酱 1汤匙
- 生抽 2汤匙
- 蚝油 1汤匙
- 熟芝麻 1茶匙
- 紫菜 1张
做法
- 鸡胸肉煎熟，也可以蒸或水煮，煎比较香；蛋炒至半熟，也可以煎成蛋皮；菠菜切去根后焯水；鲜冬菇切片后炒香，放一点盐调味；用其他菇也可以；荞麦面煮好后用凉水降温；
- 拌酱料。没有柚子汁的朋友可以用柠檬汁代替，或者直接放醋；
- 胡萝卜和黄瓜切丝后拌一点点盐杀水，吃起来比较脆；菠菜捏水后切段；鸡胸肉撕成丝；
- 淋上酱汁，紫菜剪丝，拌起来。
