Fridays have lately become my vegetarian day. My boyfriend’s off to play football, so he’s not eating dinner. Which leaves me alone with the ever so hard desicion – what to have for dinner. But somehow it’s a lot easier when it’s just for yourself. You don’t have to make a proper dinner – unless you want to – and of course, you can toss together whatever you like without having to compromise. And I quite often have to, as does my boyfriend, since our dinner preferations are very unlike. He needs meat. I need veggies. He likes traditional. I like modern. So when I make dinner for myself only – I opt vegetarian. And light. Most often a salad or something. I don’t need that meat. But last week I bought a pack of soba noodles and decided to make something of that.
I’m a big Nigella fan, and in her book Forever Summer there’s a recipe with soba noodles that I’ve been wanting to try ever since I got the book. But until now, soba noodles have been impossible to track down in this city, so I more or less forgot about it. But only more or less. You can never really forget a recipe that gets to you. Especially with a picture and Nigella’s description along. So today was the day that I finally could give it a try! Since this was my dinner I added some sugar peas and cucumber as well. And I replaced the sesame seeds with sunflower and pumpkin seeds. I’m glad to say it was perfect. Luscious cold sesamy flavoured noodles. With crispy green vegetables and roasted seeds. Perfect solo dinner, I must say. (Whereas my boyfriend would have considered this as an appetizer.) But he’s gone. I’m here, and I’m satisfied.
Soba noodles with sesame seeds
Serves 4 as part of a meal – or 2 when eaten as they are.
75g sesame seeds
salt
250g soba noodles
2 teaspoons rice vinegar
5 teaspoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons honey
2 teaspoons sesame oil
5 spring onions
Toast the sesame seeds in a dry pan over a high heat until they look golden brown, and tip them into a bowl.
Bring a large pan of water to the boil and add some salt. Put in the soba noodles and cook them for about 8 minutes (or according to packet instructions) until they are tender but not mushy. Rinse with cold water until the noodles have cooled.
In the bowl you are going to serve them in, mix the vinegar, soy sauce, honey and oil. Then finely slice the spring onions and put them into the bowl with the cooled, drained noodles and mix together thoroughly before adding the sesame seeds and tossing again.
Leave the sesame seed noodles for about half an hour to let the flavours develop, although this is not absolutely necessary or sometimes even possible according Nigella. And I agree. Not necessary. Not possible. I’ve been waiting for this long enough!
I heart cakes 