Buckwheat Soba Noodles Drowning in Miso and Greens

This is just a variation of my popular Miso Bowl with Green Vegetables.  

I decided to make more of a meal of it, simply by stirring in some buckwheat noodles.  

It reminds me a little of of Bibimbap, a bowl that you mess up. This one though, I will let you slurp.

Black Soba Noodles with Miso Dressed Vegetables and Edamame Beans

The day started quite bleak -weather wise, but the sun did come out - we went into the city of Cardiff today.  D wanted a new pair of shoes for work and I had to been given responsibility to pick up a Birthday present for a colleague at work.  

When we got home, a little hungry - I decided to put together a noodle salad style dish.  I've been seeing raw rainbow salads appearing both in cookbooks and on blogosphere.  Many of these rainbow salads are made with shredded purple cabbage and grated carrot, a bit like a sesame seed coleslaw really, but without the mayonnaise dressing. 

Soba Noodles with Soy-Ginger Sweet Potatoes

You may have or may not have noticed, but the last seven days I have been physically away from the computer and blogging.  I have spent the past week down south and all the posts that have appeared are thanks to the technical magic of blogger, permitting bloggers to schedule advanced blog posts.  Even though I have utilised this scheduling of posts method heavily the past week, I have to be honest and say, I am undecided whether I really like this feature.  Oh it certainly has its benefits, but I feel it in some way takes away from the blogging interaction experience, as I have unable to respond to comments at the time.  Therefore, I would like to say Thank you to everyone who has come by while I have been away and to those who have taken time to leave a comment, it is appreciated.

Anyway, we arrived back in the west of Scotland late this afternoon.  I had already decided to make Arriabiata Pasta when we got in, stopping at one of the local shops only for milk and bread, but when I got in I saw a large sweet potato in the vegetable basket.  So the menu was changed from Arrabiata to this: 'Soba Noodles with Soy-Ginger Sweet Potatoes'.

The recipe is quite straight forward and other than the sweet potatoes, relies a lot on what I consider to be store cupboard ingredients, (yes, for me fresh ginger and garlic are store cupboard ingredients). I wasn't completely sure whether this noodle dish would be welcomed by D, especially having driven about 7 hours and then possibly being fed a duff meal, especially after the rich delicious goodness he's been tucking into at my mothers house.  So I was all apologetic to him in advance thinking that this was going to receive a big thumbs down, but surprisingly it tasted really good.  The soy blemished sweet potato cubes were flavour packed with a ginger kick.  I especially loved the flavoured mayo and know I will be making it again as its quite versatile.  I think it would be good over baked potatoes, or to jazz up a plain mayo coleslaw.

I am submitting this to I am submitting this to Presto Pasta Nights. PPN was founded by Ruth Daniels of Once Upon a Feast and each Friday night a different host posts a roundup of pasta dishes submitted by bloggers from around the world. This week PPN#231 is being hosted by Juli of Pictures of All My Princesses.

Soba Noodles with Soy-Ginger Sweet Potatoes
Serves 2 (can easily be doubled)
For the Soy-Ginger Sweet Potatoes
Ingredients
1 large sweet potato
50ml Tamari or soy sauce
1 tablespoon fresh ginger, minced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
Method
Peel the sweet potatoes and cut into even sized 1 inch cubes.  Place in a small ovenproof dish or non stick baking tin.
Mix the sauce with the ginger and garlic and pour the mixture over the potatoes.  Stir well so all the potatoes are coated.  Then bake in the oven at Gas mark 4 for 30 minutes until tender.
For the Cayenne-Sesame Mayonnaise
Whilst the sweet potatoes are baking, make the flavoured mayonnaise.
4 tablespoons good quality mayonnaise
1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
¼ cayenne pepper
Salt to taste
Method
Mix the mayonnaise with the sesame oil.  Whisk in the lemon juice.  Add salt and cayenne pepper to taste. 

For the soba noodles
Follow the packet instructions.
To assemble
As soon as the soba noodles are cooked, drain.  Drizzle with a little toasted sesame oil, then stir in the baked soy-ginger sweet potatoes, then generously drizzle over the cayenne-sesame mayonnaise.  Serve immediately.  Adapted from Vegetarian with a Vengeance.

Sesame Soba Noodles with Edamame Beans

I can't remember when I made this dish, but it was on one of those afternoons when I was feeling a bit lazy and wanted something relatively quick and easy on the table.  So instead of Italian style pasta coated in some flavoursome green pesto, I made noodles, yes you read right Noodles!

For those of you who have been reading this blog from the beginning, will know that I have had an aversion to noodles simply because of those 'artificial flavoured noodles in a pot'.  These potted noodles only entered my parents home in my teen years, when one of my brothers suddenly took a liking to them.  Well I promised, I'd try proper noodles at some time in my life and here it is - Soba noodles, the first of many noodle variations.

Soba, or Japanese buckwheat noodles, have a distinct nutty flavour.  Well I am delighted to share that the Soba noodles I ate are nothing like those instant our over hot water ones with a strange colour, smell and slimey texture. The colours were earthy and the flavour distinctly nutty.  I have to add, I also found soba noodles much lighter than its Italian friend spaghetti that is traditionally made from durum wheat.

To my soba noodles I added some fresh carrots and edamame beans.  Fresh edamame beans still in their pods were introduced to the British public a couple of years ago as the next superfood full of nutritional qualities.  The edamame bean was hailed as an amazing green bean to have virtually all the health benefits of meat.  I have read that some farmers in Kent, U.K are growing edamame beans, but I have to admit I haven't seen them in supermarket yet.  For this recipe, I've used frozen edamame beans.  Edamame beans look very similar to the broad bean, but taste is completely different - much more nuttier and creamier.  

I am submitting this to I am submitting this to Presto Pasta Nights #220. PPN was founded by Ruth Daniels of Once Upon a Feast and each Friday night a different host posts a roundup of pasta dishes submitted by bloggers from around the world. This week PPN is being hosted by Ruth.

Sesame Soba Noodles with edamame beans

Serves 3 - 4

Ingredients

Soba noodles to serve 3 - 4 people

4 tablespoons tahini paste

3 - 4 cloves garlic, crushed

3 tablespoons tamari or other soy sauce

2 tablespoon toasted sesame oil

100ml - 150ml water, as required

1 tablespoon peanut oil

1 large carrot, cut into small matchsticks

75g - 100g frozen edamame beans (or peas), defrosted

1 tablespoon sesame seeds, toasted

Method

Cook the soba noodles according to packet instructions. 

In a blender, process the tahini, garlic, tamari, 1 tablespoon sesame oil and enough water to obtain a smooth, sauce like consistency.  Transfer to a small saucepan and heat over low heat, stirring until warm.  Keep the sauce warm

Heat the peanut oil in a medium pan over high heat.  Add the carrot matchsticks and stir fry for a couple of minutes, then add in the edamame beans (or peas) and stir fry until hot, about 1 minute.  Reduce the heat to low and keep the vegetables warm.

When the soba noodles are cooked, drain and place in large serving bowl.  Drizzle on the remaining 1 tablespoon sesame oil and toss to coat evenly.  Add the vegetables and sauce and toss to combine.  Sprinkle with sesame seeds and serve immediately.  Adapted from Vegan Planet by Robin Robertson.