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Soba Salad
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- Total Time
- 15 minutes
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
- Salt
- freshly ground pepper
- 3 to 4ounces soba noodles
- 1carrot, peeled and finely chopped
- 2cups edamame (frozen are fine)
- 2 to 3tablespoons soy sauce
- Juice of one lime
- 2tablespoons white or light miso
- 1tablespoon mirin or 1 teaspoon sugar, or to taste
- 110-ounce package fresh spinach, washed and trimmed
- ¼cup chopped scallion
- 1tablespoon freshly grated ginger
Preparation
- Step 1
Bring a large pot of water to a boil and salt it. Drop in the noodles and carrot and cook until tender, 2 to 4 minutes; add the edamame for about 15 to 30 seconds just to warm, then drain everything in a colander. Set aside.
- Step 2
In a large salad bowl, whisk together the soy sauce, lime juice, miso and mirin or sugar. Add spinach, noodles, carrot, edamame, scallion, and toss; then taste and season with salt and pepper as needed. Garnish with grated ginger at the table.
Private Notes
Cooking Notes
Real Soba noodles really need to be rinsed in cold water after cooking. I recommend cooking the carrots and edamame first, removing them to a bowl and then cooking the noodles separately. When done, drain, rinse and combine with the other ingredients. Otherwise, you'll likely end up with a starchy mass.
Brought this to a Labor Day picnic and it was very popular. Nary a bean was left in the dish. Instead of the Miso, I added ~1T water to a dehydrated Miso soup. Much cheaper and I didn't have a lot of Miso left to work with.
Really fresh flavors. I followed others suggestions and boiled the noodles separately and ran them under cold water. Also added chopped red bell pepper for crunch, taste and color. I wish I had blanched the spinach instead of adding it raw to the noodle dish. Also added a bit of sriracha for some heat and additional flavors.
Use real soba, if you can: the texture and flavor is particular. I prefer 100% buckwheat soba but it can be tricky to find; Whole Foods and others do sell soba that is part buckwheat, or has green tea or burdock: ALL are excellent. Bittman made this easy by just boiling the soba: by tradtion it is cooked by putting in boiling water, adding cold water and return to boil 3 or so times for perfect texture. I subbed out baby kale for spinach; good lightly blanched or raw.
I couldn't get Miso or soba at my local store so I used 4 tbs of soy sauce instead and substituted whole wheat spaghetti for the soba. I found 10 0z of spinach uncooked to be excessive so I only used about 6 ozs. We liked it alot. Next time I would double the amount of noodles and keep everything else the same but I'd try miso next time and see how that tastes. With soy sauce instead of miso the flavor of the dressing was light and a nice mix of soy and lime. I used mirin instead of sugar.
Real Soba noodles really need to be rinsed in cold water after cooking. I recommend cooking the carrots and edamame first, removing them to a bowl and then cooking the noodles separately. When done, drain, rinse and combine with the other ingredients. Otherwise, you'll likely end up with a starchy mass.
Adjustments: 1) if can’t find miso paste, sesame paste/tahini with oil skimmed off is a good substitute; 2) mix dressing in advance, including the ginger (if too soy/salty, add more miso paste and/or sugar); 3) if want cooked spinach, wilt in a pan for 1ish min using its own water (so don’t need oil), then squeeze out water before adding to salad; 4) adjust cooking times so: 3 min carrots, add frozen beans 1 min, add soba noodles 3-4 min (if beans are fresh add with noodles).
I think this is my new favorite. I didn’t have miso, so experimented with this green tahini I bought a while back...it was amazing. I’m not sure I even want to try it with the miso now, it was so good. Also added some sautéed shiitakes to make an even heartier meal. Will be making this again for sure!
We used a higher end soy Tamari and a little bit more than 2 tablespoons. Also, let the salad sit after the final mix to soak the lime, ginger, & juice. We would also strike the amount of Spinach to one plastic package of 6oz. 2 cups of frozen shelled edamame on the list of ingredients might make it more clear for a tired software engineer
Made this as a lunch for one by reducing the amounts. Easy enough to prep, I grated the carrot and blanched the spinach and shallots with the edamane. Served warm it is overall quite flavoursome and filling.
Made several times for a quick weeknight meals. Good with white miso and stronger options (red, etc.). Used 2 carrots and 4-5 oz. of soba.
Amazon and Vitacost are good sources for what you can't find locally. I'll try dubbing green peas for edamame unless I can find organic edamame. Most soy in the US is GMO, which I do my best to avoid.
I added a few more ingredients to add some complexity: sesame seeds, peanuts, and sriracha. The heat and textures were a nice complement.
Tastes great. Break up soba before cooking. I added some diced zucchini to carrots and soba. Frozen edamame, thawed, needs to cook for about 5 minutes so I drained water from soba & vegetables into large bowl, poured it back into pot, and cooked separately. I'm now saving cooking water to make veggie broth.
Scallion? How much?
Used some other tweaks my own, loved it!: 1st, pressed firm tofu, cut 3/4" sq. Made the sauce as marinade for the tofu, grated ginger in right at the start, splash of toasted sesame oil, 1 tsp chili crisp (halved the mirin, as others). Marinated 2 hrs. Meanwhile, just *warmed the frozen edamame (per pkg instrs), cooled, mixed in big bowl w/grated carrot, 1/2 chopt red bell, scallions. Chilled. Last step, cooked soba, ice-water rinse. Mixed all, topped w/toasted sesame seeds cilantro. 5*!
PS I just skipped tbe spinach altogether - wanted all textures crunchy/chewy, except for the noodles and tofu. The dusting of cilantro added a touch of green, and flavor... didn't feel it needed more leafy green. Very happy with it!
I made this for a potluck and it was a big hit. I put it together earlier in the day, and didn't even think about it, but the spinach softened a lot before it was served, so if you want fresh raw crunchy salad, add the spinach at the last minute.
Start with less soy sauce for more depth. Add red pepper for crunch. Sprinkle with sesame seeds. Less spinach. Try using mirin instead of sugar.
Highly recommend adding a drizzle of sesame oil to balance it out.
Wondering what MJ did with the chopped carrots when they advised to rinse the soba noodles and edamame in cold water after boiling. I really liked this recipe but the noodles did stick together so I like the idea of rinsing them. Just wondering if they also rinse the carrots.
Careful with miso and soy sauce Also add sesame oil Add something for crunch, e.g. chopped peanuts
I felt this needed some fat and really enjoyed it with sesame oil.
I added frozen edamame directly to the water boiling the soba noodles to reduce the temperature, which helps the noodles cook evenly, and both were perfectly cooked this way. Then I rinsed the soba noodles and edamame in cold water after cooking. Rinsing the noodles prevents them from being gummy due to the starch that builds up around the noodle during the cooking process.
This was okay…I upped the Sriracha quite a bit and added a dash of Maggi. Doubled the carrots. Pretty good with the coconut tempeh found here.
Very bitter? Tasted the dressing before adding everything just in case, and could not get it to taste yummy to me. Still tried moving forward, it was very bitter - and my noodles were gummy. Usually love Bittman's recipes, but I must have done something wrong here.
Not fabulous but good, easy and healthy but start with 1.5 T soy sauce (as opposed to 2-3 T) unless you are using a low sodium product. Satisfying weeknight dinner.
One of the worst things I have ever cooked. The soba noodles are incredibly salty and then the dressing is even more salt. The whole thing was a pain to make and looked like slop. Never again.
I also cooked the soba and veg separately. Would leave out the spinach next time and just keep all the veggies crunchy.
Recipe lacks clarity -- 10 oz of spinach purchased in a plastic clamshell container is way too much spinach. Maybe that was not what was meant by "fresh spinach."?? Soba noodles are sometimes sold precooked shelf stable, precooked frozen, or uncooked. I am stupid and used precooked shelf stable noodles in this recipe. It was bad. Why did I boil precooked noodles? Because I am stupid.
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