Soba salad – easy and healthy
About Soba salad
Soba salad is an easy and healthy salad with soba noodles. You may already know that soba is a thin Japanese noodle made from buckwheat. Soba is very common food in Japan and served either hot or cold.
You can enjoy soba salad with your favorite ingredients and seasonings. Simply add plenty of your favorite vegetables, meat, and / or seafood to the soba and season with various dressings to transform it into a stylish salad. You can eat it as a light meal or a side dish. Since you eat a lot of vegetables with this salad, it’s healthy.
Soba is ideal not only for Japanese style, but also for various arrangements such as Chinese, Western, and Asian. So let’s try various things and make your own salad. I put a link below about nutrition of soba noodles, please read it if you like.
Recipe tips
Ingredients
In fact, you can use most of vegetables, meat, and seafood. I usually make it from the ingredients found in the refrigerator and / or pantry. The following are commonly used ingredients for the salad.
Vegetables: Leafy vegetables (lettuce, rucola, baby leaves etc.) tomato, cucumber, carrot, onion, cabbage, broccoli (boiled), avocado, bell pepper etc.
Meat: Ham, salami, chicken(cooked), bacon (grilled or pan-fried), pork (cooked or grilled), beef (roasted or pan-fried) etc.
Seafood: Canned tuna, shrimp (boiled), crab meat, smoked salmon etc.
Dressing
You can make your own dressing, or you can use the one sold at the store. I basically make it myself. However, recently I see lots of interesting dressings at supermarkets, so I think it’s good to use them. Asian supermarkets sell Japanese dressings such as sesame dressing, yuzu dressing, and shiso dressing. If you don’t usually cook Japanese food and want to make Japanese-style soba salad, you can try these.
In this post, I will share two salad recipes (soba salad with chicken, and soba salad with tomato and avocado). And you can use these dressings (sesame dressing and soy sauce-based dressing) in various salads.
Soba salad with chicken
Equipment
- a pot
Ingredients
- 100 gram Dried soba noodles
- 100 gram Chicken breast filet
- a pinch of Salt
- 1 tablespoon Japanese sake or Chinese rice wine or sherry
- 5~6 Cherry tomatoes
- 50 ~ 60 gram Salad leaves
- 15 gram Green onion (finely chopped)
- 1½ tablespoon Tahini (white sesame paste) for dressing
- 2 tablespoon Japanese soy sauce for dressing
- 1 tablespoon Fine granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon Vinegar
- 1 tablespoon Roasted sesame seeds
Instructions
- Sprinkle salt on the chicken breast. Put chicken and Japanese sake in a heat-resistant container and wrap it gently. Heat in a 600W microwave for about 2-3 minutes or until cooked. When the chicken is cooled down,tear it by hand into a size that is easy to eat.
- Make the dressing. Put tahini, soy sauce, sugar, vinegar, and sesame seeds in a small bowl and mix well until all is combined.
- Wash the leafy vegetables, drain them well, cut them into pieces that are easy to eat, or tear them by hand. Cut cherry tomatoes in half or quarter.
- Put the soba noodles in a pot of boiling water and boil as indicated on the package. Discard the boiled water, wash the soba with cold water, and pour it into a colander to drain excess water.
- Place soba on a plate and put vegetables and chicken on it. Sprinkle the green onions and the dressing on top.
Notes
Soba salad with tomato and avocado
Equipment
- a pot
Ingredients
- 100 gram Dried soba noodles
- 7~8 Cherry tomatoes
- 1 Avocado
- 2½ tablespoon Japanese soy sauce for dressing
- 2½ tablespoon Mirin for dressing
- 1½ teaspoon Sugar for dressing
- 1½ tablespoon Sesame oil for dressing
- 2 teaspoon Roasted sesame seeds for dressing
Instructions
- Make the dressing: put soy sauce, mirin, and sugar in a microwave safe bowl. Heat in a microwave and bring to a boil. It takes about 10 to 15 seconds depending on the power. (The reason for boiling is to remove the alcohol from the mirin. Since the amount is small, it will boil quickly, so be careful not to overheat it.) Add sesame oil and sesame seeds and mix well.
- Cut the avocado in half, remove the stone, peel, and cut into 1 cm cubes. Cut cherry tomatoes in half or quarter.
- Put the soba noodles in a pot of boiling water and boil as indicated on the package. Discard the boiled water, wash the soba with cold water, and pour it into a colander to drain excess water.
- Place soba on a plate and put avocado and tomato on it. Sprinkle the dressing over it.
Notes
These are very easy and quick to make, so please give it a try. Both recipes use sesame seeds and oil. If you have sesame seeds and oil left, why not try making Japanese side dish “Goma ae”? Click the link below for the recipe.
Thank you for reading and Bon Appetit!