» Whole Grain Recipes

{recipe} Nutty Soba Noodle Salad

Karen — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 15:28:43 +0000

I am in LOVE with cold peanut noodles, but they always have a ton of peanut butter and sesame oil in the sauce which is incredibly caloric, and noodles aren’t exactly low cal either. My muffin top is big enough already so if I want to eat these I feel I have to make them a slightly different way, wherein the noodles are augmented by lots of colorful vegetables and the caloric parts of the sauce are cut down a bit. After much experimentation, this is the happy medium I came up with!

It’s a pretty easy recipe- I do the noodles and the broccoli in the same pot, and the sauce is just a food processor thing, so you can make this from start to finish in under 20 minutes. Of course, any vegetables of your liking will work. It’s a good dish to make for vegetarian company. Actually, I totally just realized this is VEGAN. I can’t believe I like something vegan! I think I just saw a pig fly. A delicious, delectable little pig. Mmmmm. Bacon.

Nutty Thai Noodle Salad
serves 3-4

Ingredients:

1 clove garlic, peeled
3 inch piece of ginger, peeled
1/4 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup almond butter (or just use more peanut butter)
1/4 cup hot water
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 Tblsp sesame oil
2 Tblsp white wine vinegar
2 Tblsp honey
2 tsp dijon mustard (smooth, not grainy)
1 bunch broccoli or baby broccoli, trimmed and chopped
1 large or 2 small red bell peppers, seeded and sliced into thin strips
1 bunch scallions, white and light green parts finely chopped
12 oz. buckwheat soba noodles
red pepper flakes or sriracha to taste
sesame seeds to taste

Method:

Put garlic and ginger in a food processor and pulse to chop. Add nut butters, hot water, soy sauce, oil, vinegar, honey and mustard and chop in the food processor until well mixed. Add red pepper flakes or sriracha to taste if desired and pulse again. Set aside.
Heat a large pot of salted water on the stove. Add the broccoli and cook until tender, about 5 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon, rinse with cool water, drain, and set aside.
In the same pot of water, add the soba noodles and cook according to package. Drain and rinse with cool water.
In a bowl, combine noodles, broccoli, scallions, bell peppers, and dressing. Toss everything together to coat evenly. Sprinkle with a small handful of sesame seeds if desired and toss again. Serve immediately.
This keeps for about a day if you want to eat the leftovers, but after that the noodles start to get a bit broken down.

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Karen — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 16:28:39 +0000

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Divine! Although I did dump it out and realize it wasn’t done yet, so I had to re-upside-down it, cook it some more, then re-un-upside-down it. It worked surprisingly well in the end although there was a period of severe swearing that involved liquid hot caramel magma all over the kitchen and my pants, but the cake looked good after all that so no big deal in the end.

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{recipe} Spicy Thai Noodle Bowl for One

Karen — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 16:49:39 +0000

Ah, that elusive concept known as “healthy lunch.” Despite my best intentions I find that in the middle of the day it’s hard for me to resist the charms of foods like pizza with ranch dressing, giant burritos, or 9 pounds of hummus and falafel with 17 slices of pita. The other day I took a little time to make a healthy, flavorful, simple noodle bowl with whole wheat fettucine and a whole lot of hot sauce. Not only did I feel physically energetic and alive for the rest of the day, but also smugly virtuous. Win-win!

Spicy Thai Noodle Bowl for One

Ingredients:

4 oz fresh whole wheat fettucine
½ tsp vegetable oil
¼ cup chopped white, yellow, or red onion
1 Tblsp torn cilantro leaves
~10 cracked coriander seeds
1 pack liquid chicken broth concentrate or 1/2 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup coconut milk
salt and freshly ground pepper
juice from 1 small lime
1 scallion, finely chopped
sambal oelek or sriracha to taste

Method:

Cook fettucine in salted boiling water until tender. Drain and reserve about 2 Tblsp pasta water.
Meanwhile, heat oil in a small sauté pan. Add onion, cilantro, and coriander seeds and sauté until soft and fragrant, and onion just starts to brown.
Add broth and coconut milk, plus a large pinch of salt and about 3-4 grinds of pepper, and reduce over medium high heat until thick and creamy.
Add fettucine and reserved pasta water to pan and cook over medium high heat until sauce coats the noodles, about 3-5 minutes.
Turn off heat and stir in lime juice and scallions.
Pour into bowl and top with sambal oelek or sriracha to taste. If you put the amount shown here you will be in for some serious heat!
This recipe can easily be made vegetarian by substituting vegetable broth for the chicken broth.

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