hello! Hi everyone! Wesley here. Today we’re diving back into our series dedicated to actually decent vegetarian recipes with another addition to our ever growing list of variations on a sesame noodle, with a a shot at a cold soba noodle. For those unfamiliar, soba noodles are made of buckwheat flour (hence their beautifully gray-ish hue). Soba originates from Korean and Japanese cuisine, and are often classically served cold, with very simple sides. In our case today, that’s gonna be a bit of miso and sesame paste, but you may also see it served with even simpler seasonings, like soy sauce, mirin, or dashi broth.
For the lazy (or for that matter, those short on time) you can absolutely serve this dish as is, literally just cold noodles plus sauce. But for our version today though, I thought I’d take this opportunity to have some fun with one of my favorite root veggies, which is the daikon radish. Some may recall the sweet and savory neon yellow pickled daikon that we’ve used in many dishes now. For today though, we’re gonna be slicing these up into razor thin slivers, and then doing a quick pickle to these bad boys in some rice vinegar, mirin, and sake for a crisp and sweet addition to our noodles. Hope you try it.
Serves 2-3
INGREDIENTS
1 lb soba noodles
1 daikon
4 cloves garlic
1 inch (about 1 tbsp ginger)
3 green onions
4 oz cilantro
1 sheet nori
2 eggs
kosher salt
INGREDIENTS (sauce)
4 tbsp low sodium soy sauce (or 2 tbsp full sodium soy sauce)
2 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tbsp mirin
1 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp miso paste
3 tbsp sesame paste
INGREDIENTS (pickled daikon)
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup rice vinegar
2 tbsp mirin
2 tbsp sake
1/2 cup white sugar
PREP
CRUSH and mince 4 cloves of garlic, set aside
MINCE ginger, set aside
SEPARATE the whites and greens of the green onions, then slice both thinly and set aside
DESTEM the cilantro, then roll into a tight bunch and mince
SLICE the daikon thinly, then season with kosher salt and let marinate for 20 minutes
CUT the nori sheet into strips, set aside
COMBINE all sauce ingredients, whisk until a smooth paste forms, then add the garlic, ginger, and whites of green onions
ON THE STOVE
COMBINE all pickled daikon ingredients in a saucepan, then bring to a simmer until the sugar dissolves
ADD the daikon to a heatproof container leaving as much liquid behind as possible, then add the daikon brine solution, and let sit for 30 minutes, or overnight.
HARD BOIL two eggs
BOIL a pot of water, then add the noodles and boil to package instruction
REMOVE from heat, then shock in cold water immediately
COMBINE the noodles with the sauce mixture and cilantro, then toss to combine
FINISH with a side of pickled daikon, nori, greens of green onions, and hard boiled eggs