{recipe} Nutty Soba Noodle Salad

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.

Recipe: Nutty Soba 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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