Chilled Japanese soba noodles / Zaru soba

Japanese soba noodles / Zaru Soba

There are some days when you just want to eat something cold, aren't there? You get home, hot and maybe a little sticky and the thought of a hot meal is just, well, meh..that's when you need to try out chilled soba noodles. The Japanese call this dish zaru soba and it is a big summer favourite in Japan. It's healthy, nutricious and, best of all, cooling on a hot day - it's vegetarian friendly too. You can make the dipping sauce and keep it in the fridge, so putting the meal together can be done in minutes. Then it's just a matter of putting a little of each garnish into the sauce, taking some noodles in your chopsticks and giving them a good dip. I've used shiso leaves, nori and spring onions as a garnish but you can use your imagination here. Some Japanese like to add a little wasabi to the dipping sauce as well for a mustardy kick.

You can find the recipe below and the youtube tutorial by clicking Chilled Japanese soba noodles / Zaru Soba or just scroll to the bottom of the page. If you want to find out more about shiso leaves and how to grow them, take a look at my "grow your own/make your own" section of the website.

Happy slurping! Kurumi XXXX.

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Chilled Japanese soba noodles

ingredients:

(makes 2 servings)

4 portions dried soba noodles

3 spring onions

8 shiso leaves

1.5 nori sheets, finely shredded

for the dipping sauce

600 ml water*

2 tsp japanese stock granules*

1.5 tbsp sugar

2 tsp japanese rice vinegar

1.5 tbsp japanese cooking sake

6 tbsp soy sauce

2 tbsp mirin

*Use Japanese vegan stock instead water and japanese stock granules for vegan dipping sauce

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how to:

to make the soba, boil plenty of water in a large pan. put the soba into the pan and cook for 5 minutes or according to the instructions on the packet

(if the water comes back to the boil, add a cup of water and adjust the heat to stop the water boiling - siba noodles shouldn't be boiled)

when the soba is cooked, drain it through a colander and rinse it well in cold running water. (on a really hot day, you can chill the noodles further with ice cubes)

to make the dipping sauce, put the the dashi, rice vinegar, sake, mirin, sugar and soy sauce into a small pan with water (600ml). bring to the boil and simmer for 3-4 minutes.

finely shred the shiso and chop the spring onion.

when you eat, add a little of each shiso, spring onion and nori into the dipping sauce, then add the soba. now, you can officially slurp!

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Japanese soba noodles / Zaru Soba