Soba Noodle Salad with Roasted Vegetables

Some of the ingredients for Soba Noodle Salad with Roasted Vegetables

Last week my teenage niece Aleks stayed for a day and night. She was making her slow way back to Christchurch, after being evacuated to Little River for almost two weeks because her bedroom was not safe to sleep in after the earthquake.

Damage to a bedroom wall in Aleks' (1870s double brick cottage) home.

Aleks is fond of both pasta and Japanese food, so I put the two together and made her a noodle and roasted vegetable salad, using soba noodles, which are made mainly of buckwheat and have a distinctive flavour. She liked it so much she took the leftovers home with her.

This is an easy recipe, with lots of room for improvisation and substitution in vegetables and flavourings. I have simplified it from a more authentic Japanese version, which involves preparing the vegetables in two different ways rather than roasting them all together, or roasting them with tamari, wine and vinegar. I think doing it this way gives the veges more flavour - while a free hand with the sesame oil in the dressing does no harm either. Plus the heat in the recipe (fresh chilli or red pepper flakes) can also be adjusted to taste.

SOBA NOODLE SALAD with ROASTED VEGETABLES

(serves 3-4)

Ingredients

1 onion, thinly sliced

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1T fresh ginger, very finely chopped

around 400g of tender vegetables

Choose as many as possible from

baby green beens OR butter beans

snow peas

asparagus

beet stems

pak choy

mushrooms

courgettes

capsicums

eggplant

2 T peanut oil

salt to taste

1 t dark sesame oil

2 T tamari

4 T rice wine OR dry sherry

2 T rice vinegar

400g soba (Japanese buckwheat) noodles

3 spring onions, finely sliced

1 small red chilli, very finely chopped OR 1 t red pepper flakes

5-6 T coriander leaves OR Thai basil leaves, coarsely chopped

Dressing:

1 T sesame oil

2 T rice vinegar

1 T tamari

Method

Heat the oven to 200 C.

Prepare the vegetables – wash and trim them (beans, snow peas) and/or slice them into small pieces.

Heat the oil in a large roasting pan, and stir-fry the onion, garlic and ginger for one minute.

Add the sliced vegetables, and stir them well to coat them with the oil.

Sprinkle them with salt and mix again.

Spread them out in one layer in the pan, and roast them at 200 C. for 6-7 minutes.

Mix together the sesame oil, tamari, rice wine OR sherry and rice vinegar.

Pour the mixture over the roasting vegetables, stir them well, and continue roasting them for another 10 minutes or so, until the vegetables are tender and the liquid has evaporated. (Stir as required.)

Cook the noodles in lots of boiling salted water until al dente (around 5 minutes).

Drain them really well and put them in a large bowl.

Add the roasted veges, the sliced spring onions, chopped chilli OR red pepper flakes, and the coriander OR basil leaves.

Add the oil, vinegar and tamari, toss them gently until everything is well-coated,

taste and add more of the dressing ingredients if needed.

Serve at room temperature, garnished with a sprinkling of sesame seeds and sprigs of coriander or basil.