For ➍400 g cooked soba noodles
2 ts toasted sesame oil
100 g watercress
100 g red beet leaves or rocket lettuce
4 spring onions, finely chopped
1 tbs toasted sesame seeds
1 sheet nori (dried seaweed), finely shredded
20 cl dashi-shoyu*
2 ts wasabi paste
Rinse the noodles under cold water and sprinkle with sesame oil. Toss well and set aside to drain.
To make the dressing, mix together the soy dashi and the wasabi paste. Put the noodles and the salad leaves in a large mixing bowl and toss to mix. Divide the noodle salad among 4 plates. Drizzle the dressing over the salad, garnish with the chopped spring onions, sesame seeds and shredded nori.
Serve immediately.
*Dashi-shoyu is a soy sauce variance on dashi, the Japanese seaweed broth. Read a recipe or buy ready made.
Soba noodles, made of buckwheat, become very popular in Japan when the heat is high.
Most Japanese noodles, including soba, are rinsed rather vigorously in cold running water. This not only cools them down but gets rid of excess starch, which adversely affects the flavor of the noodles.
Try a similar salad idea with ramen noodles.
