We loved this cold noodle salad from Bon Appetit so much, we’ve made it three times in the past few weeks – a good sign we should probably share it with you, too. On a hot summer evening, it’s a perfect dinner to cool off with. The sri racha chili in the dressing brings some spice and helps cool you down. And the cucumber and radishes have cooling properties of their own. But what really makes the salad is the dressing – sweet, spicy and tangy.
Soba Noodle Salad with Summer Vegetables
Boil the Noodles Bring water to boil in a saucepan and cook 8 ounces of buckwheat soba noodles until they’re done (about 10 minutes). Drain, rinse with cold water and set aside.
Chop the Vegetables Chop into matchsticks: 4 radishes, 1/2 English cucumber, 1 carrot. Also chop up 1/2 cup cilantro, and 1/4 cup scallions.
Matchstick Vegetables
Cook the Prawns Clean the prawns. (Remove the innards and cut off the shells.) Chop up 2 cloves garlic. (Now’s the tie to harvest from your garden!) In a medium saucepan over medium-low heat, heat up 1 T vegetable oil. Add the minced garlic and heat until you can smell it (about 2 minutes) but don’t let it burn. Add the prawns and a splash of chili oil and cook, stirring constantly, for about five minutes, until the prawns are all pink.
Make the Dressing Stir together 1/4 cup rice vinegar, 1/4 cup canola oil, 2 T sri racha, 2 T sesame oil.
Toast black or white sesame seeds in a toaster oven or a little frying pan on the stove top.
In a medium bowl, toss the cold noodles with about 1/2 the dressing, the scallions, and the sesame seeds. Divide the noodles between 2 or 4 bowls. Top with the chopped vegetables and then the shrimp. Sprinkle with cilantro.
Delicious Soba Noodle Salad
Ingredients
- 8 oz buckwheat noodles
- 4 radishes
- 1/2 english cucumber
- 1 carrot
- 1/2 pound of prawns
- splash of chili oil
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1/2 cup cilantro
- 1/2 cup scallions
- 1/4 cup rice vinegar
- 1/4 cup canola oil
- 2 T sri racha
- 2 T toasted sesame oil
- 2 T sesame seeds
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Hi Seattle Foodshed, thanks for the pingback. Your dish looks delicious and your matchstick pretty impressive
! Where do you suggest me to buy the sri racha? Looking forward to giving it a try & thanks for sharing. Claire
Melanie used to be a chef, and she rather takes pride in her matchsticks. Thanks for appreciating them.
for finding Sri racha, where do you live? We get ours at the local Asian supermarket. I know whole foods carries it, and local co-ops likely have it too.
My pleasure
I live in London: would you recommend a general Asian store or will the Japanese food store also sell Sri racha? All the best.
Taste of Siam at 45 Camden High Street has an adjoining shop with Thai groceries. (at least, they did in 2011). If you can, get the Huy Fong brand, which does not have MSG and is also (in our opinion) the best kind. That brand is ubiquitous here in the US. Let us know if that worked out! Otherwise, we’ll get creative and help you track it down. Once you have a bottle, you’ll start to use it on everything.
Amazing
: you even got me the name of the shop! Thank you and will let you know how it worked out, thank you!
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I make something very similar but with lots of lime juice instead of the rice vinegar and a ridiculous amount of fresh chillies (hoping they burn some calories). Yours is way prettier though! Love those soba noodles – slippery, filling gluten-free goodness.
There’s something so satisfying about soba noodles, isn’t there? We’re going to have to try your version with lime juice and chlis. That sounds super summery.
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