SIMPLE SOBA NOODLES- RECIPE

SOBA NOODLES

A Japanese staple, soba noodles are healthy — usually made from buckwheat which is an ancient grain and kinda chewy and nutty. My one-year-old loves them, as does his Dad and everyone in between.

INGREDIENTS

Soba noodles

Soba sauce

Spring onion, green part, chopped finely (if you don’t have, any regular onion/leek will work, finely diced)

METHOD

Switch on a full kettle and get your biggest pot 1/3-filled and on the boil as well.

When the kettle water has boiled, pour it into the pot so you have a big pot of boiling water. (I do this to get a big pot of water boiling as quickly as possible. You be like Stevie Nicks and go your own way*.)

Un-bundle the soba noodles and toss into the boiling water.

(Roughly 1 bundle per person.)

Set out small, rice-bowl sized bowls, one per person and place a tablespoon of spring onion in each.

Heat the soba sauce in a small saucepan. (If you really can’t be bothered, skip this and serve it cold.)

Have a colander ready in the sink.

Have chopsticks out for everyone.

Check the noodles. The packet instructions are often indecipherable so you may not know how long to boil for. TIP: It’s usually not long. Keep checking by fishing out an individual strand and biting into it. You want all the al dente bite to be cooked out but only just! Do not overcook. It is easy to do.

As soon as the noodles are cooked, pour them out into the colander and rinse with cold water, using your hand to stir the cold water through.

Pour 1/3 cup of soba sauce into each small bowl then serve the noodles in the middle of the table.

TO EAT

Each person helps themselves to a small amount of noodles, which they dip in the sauce and eat immediately. (You don’t leave them soaking in the sauce.) Have any spare sauce and spring onions on standby in case anyone wants extra.

COOK’S NOTES:

TO BUY SOBA SAUCE — don’t get freaked out in the Asian grocery store — YOU’VE GOT THIS! The bottle might not look exactly like the one in the video, but somewhere on it IN ENGLISH(perhaps in teeny tiny writing) it will say “soba sauce”.

*I know it’s Lindsey Buckingham, please don’t email me