Japanese Noodle Vegetable Salad with Peanut Sauce
April 29th, 2010 by Leora
Adapted from Japanese Foods that Heal: Using Traditional Ingredients to Promote Health, Longevity, and Well-Being by John and Jan Belleme
Ingredients for the Salad
12 oz. udon or soba noodles (recipes called for soba and I used udon, in the hopes my kids would like this – no luck, but I loved it)
2 cups of small broccoli florets
1 cup of sliced cabbage (recipe said use napa cabbage; I used savoy cabbage)
1 large carrot, cut into thin matchsticks
3 green onions (scallions), thinly sliced
optional: 1 kirby cucumber, peeled and sliced (I skipped this)
Spicy Peanut Sauce
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
1/2 cup warm water
2 tablespoons peanut oil (I used olive oil and sesame oil instead)
1 tsp. minced garlic
1 Tbsp. minced fresh ginger
3 Tbsp. shoyu (Japanese soy sauce)
1 Tbsp. plus 1 tsp. rice vinegar (I skipped this)
1 Tbsp. plus 1 tsp. fresh lime juice (I used fresh lemon juice)
1 Tbsp. mirin (Japanese rice wine – delicious condiment, if you can get some)
1/2 tsp. dried red pepper flakes (I used hot pepper sauce instead)
How to Make the Noodle Vegetable Salad
Cook the noodles in a large pot of boiling water. Stir to prevent sticking. Cook until tender but firm. Drain. Rinse with cold water. Set aside in large bowl.
Steam the broccoli until bright green and tender-crisp. Remove, then steam the cabbage and carrot sticks. Add to noodles. Add the scallions and cucumber to noodles as well.
Mix all the peanut sauce ingredients in the food processor. Puree until smooth. Add to the noodles and toss gently. Serve.
Do you own this book?
The recipe looks really good but isn’t it long to make?
Yes, I bought the book on a whim (my son was ordering something from Amazon and it made my total purchase over $25, so I added it to get free shipping).
It’s a great book, and this happens to be one of the longer recipes. I would suggest making it once in a while, if you have an appreciative audience (my husband and I liked it – not my kids, sigh).
They teach you how to make miso soup, which is relatively easy.
Yum, that sounds delicious. Maybe I’ll bring it to our next picnic
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It worked well served one day later! Would be good for a picnic.
Yum!
that sounds so yummy!!!!
This is a delicious dish, and, as you wrote, good for a picnic. «Louis» really enjoys the peanut sauce.
That’s a nice photo and recipe to go with. I’ve made similar, myself, including the peanut sauce, using Udon noodles.
Sounds very good to me! Sorry your kids didn’t like it.
Thanks for this Leora, I’m going to try it!
I remember going out for Chinese with my then 5 year old daughter who just loved beef and brocolli only to refuse anything green at home…kids..
This looks terrific – I’ll have to look for the book at our local library. Homemade miso sounds great!
I’ve been eyeing that book for ages – maybe time to get it. Any good recipes in there with tempeh – just got fresh tempeh, a real treat.
Only one – tempeh bourguignon. It has red wine and mushrooms – looks like a vegan version of beef bourguignon.
Looks delicious!
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This looks amazing. I might be able to manage it as a weekday dinner for the Cap’n and me. (Kids’ll get pasta or something else.)
None of my kids liked it. Sigh. I have to be really motivated to make foods that *none* of my kids will eat.