Soba Noodle Salad

This is one I actually made back in August, but somehow never got around to writing up here on the blog or posting on the Facebook page. It was really tasty, especially made with farmer's market bounty. I did use rice noodles instead of buckwheat soba noodles, and probably made a couple of other changes I hope I'll remember as I write this.

As always, when a recipe is not mine, I'm pointing that out right at the beginning. This came from Felicia Sullivan over at love.life.eat.

Now I remember some of the changes I made. I had bought kale, but by the time I was making the salad it was wilted beyond redemption, so I used a head of some kind of lettuce I've since forgotten the name of instead. Also (as mentioned above), rice noodles instead of soba, Maggi seasoning instead of tamari, and seasoned rice vinegar instead of brown rice vinegar (I'd never heard of it, to be honest).

The vegetables made a very pretty picture when mixed together, although I think next time instead of grating the carrots I'll rough-chop them. It's too hard to eat grated carrots with a fork.

This was weird for me... It's not that I've never mixed pasta into vegetables to make a salad, it's that the types of vegetables and pasta here struck me as odd. I should have broken the noodles into shorter pieces than I did, but that's a note to self for next time.

The dressing mixture is a wonderful taste all on its own. Since using it on this salad, I have also drizzled it over other noodles and vegetables, and also added it to a vegetable stir-fry. It pushes the edge of what would be too much sesame oil, but doesn't cross the line.

It's hard to see them, but the sesame seeds are there as well. I ended up toasting mine for almost 5 minutes because I was dealing with another part of that night's dinner, but since they didn't burn the added time deepened the flavour nicely.

Soba Noodle Salad with Rainbow Vegetables + Sesame Dressing

Serves 10

250g/9oz buckwheat soba noodles
2 cups of flat leaf kale {baby or lacinato} rough chop
2 red bell peppers, thinly sliced
2 medium carrots, grated
4 spring onions {scallions}, finely sliced
1 tbsp sesame seeds
3 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp brown rice vinegar
1 tsp tamari {or soy sauce}
1 tsp honey or agave syrup

Again, just to be clear, this is not my recipe. I got it from love.life.eat

*Nutrition information based on recipe as written, not with my changes.

Serving Size: 78 g

Calories: 148

Total Fat: 4.8 g

Saturated Fat: 0.7 g

Trans Fat: 0.0 g

Cholesterol: 0 mg

Sodium: 249 mg

Total Carbohydrates: 23.5 g

Dietary Fiber: 1.0 g

Sugars: 1.3 g

Protein: 4.6 g