Cooking with Dr. Mom: Soba noodles with eggplant and mango

Another delicious-sounding recipe from my awesome mom.

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Yotam Ottolenghi wrote the wonderful vegetarian cookbook "Plenty".  The recipes are inspired by his time spent living in both Europe and the Middle East. He credits this recipe to his mother. He describes it as her "ultimate cook-to-impress fare" and a favorite among the readers of his Guardian recipe column.  I followed his recipe except that I broiled the eggplant instead of deep frying it as he suggests and I added mushrooms.

The recipe is best if it is made a few hours before eating to allow time for the flavors to meld. It would be a good choice for a pot luck party.

If this is to be a main course, simply add cubed fried/grilled tofu to the salad.

Soba Noodles with eggplant and mango

Dressing:

1/2 cup rice vinegar

3 tbsp sugar

1/2 tsp sea salt

2 cloves garlic, crushed and minced

1/2 tsp sirachi hot sauce

1 tsp sesame oil

grated zest and juice of one lime

1 Italian eggplant or 3-4 Asian eggplants, cut into 2cm cubes and tossed with vegetable oil

8 oz soba noodles

1 large ripe mango, cut into 1cm cubes

1 1/2 cups Thai basil leaves, julienned

2 cups cilantro leaves, chopped

1/2 sweet (vidalia) onion, very thinly sliced

1 pkg sliced mushrooms (8 oz)

roasted sesame seeds for garnish

In a small pot, heat the rice vinegar, sugar and salt over moderate heat to dissolve  the sugar in the vinegar. Remove from heat and add the rest of the dressing ingredients to the pot.  Allow to cool before tossing on the salad.

Lay the eggplant in a single layer on a foil covered cookie sheet and broil about 3 inches from the element.  Turn to cook the other side once browned and sizzling.  The eggplant should be soft, cooked through, with darkened crispy skin.

 

Fry onions in 1 tsp oil until cooked.  Cool. 

Cook the soba noodles in lots of boiling lightly salted water until cooked al dente - about 6-8 minutes.  Drain well and rinse under cold running water.  Shake the water off and allow to drip dry or lay on a clean dish towel to thoroughly dry before tossing with dressing and salad ingredients.

In a large mixing bowl, toss the dressing, mango, mushrooms, eggplant, cooked cold soba noodles, half the basil and half the cilantro and the onion.  Allow to sit for 1-2 hours.  When ready to serve, add the other half of the basil and cilantro to the salad and toss well.

Serves 6.

Recipe: Simple Soba

Lately I've been spending most of my free time packing so it's distracted me from this blog. Today I cooked a really simple and delicious meal and I knew I had to post it here. It's cool for the hot summer days (it's finally officially summer!) and it's very healthy. And it's a simple recipe, which is good since most of my kitchen things are packed already! Get ready to see a new kitchen in the background of my photos of food, because I'm moving in only one week.

This recipe involves soba noodles, also known as buckwheat noodles. You may or may not be able to find them in your local grocery store, but if not they can be found in almost any Asian supermarket. If you want you could sub out soba noodles for spaghetti noodles, but I urge you not too. Then you'd be missing out on the tastiness and healthiness of this delicious Japanese noodle. Soba noodles are high in protein, fibre, and manganese. They don't contain gluten so they're a perfect noodle option for people who can't eat gluten.

Soba noodles aren't just healthy, they're delicious. Like, really delicious. About four years ago I went through a period of time where I was obsessed with soba noodles. I ate them twice a week, at least. I ate them for lunch and dinner, sometimes on the same day. I ate them so much that after about a year I became tired of them. For four years I didn't eat any soba noodles. A couple weeks ago I saw them on the shelf in a grocery store and decided to buy them. One large and delicious bowl later and I'm hooked again. I just need to remember to pace myself this time!

Feel free to experiment with your toppings! 

Delicious soba noodles!

Recipe: Simple Soba
Serves 4

-4 servings of soba noodles (The same amount as what you would cook for 4 servings of spaghetti. One good rule of thumb is that a bundle with the diameter of a quarter is about one serving.)
-1 avocado, cubed
-1 cup soft tofu, cubed
-2 green onions, sliced
-1 large carrot, grated
-4 tbs toasted sesame seeds

Sauce:
-1/4 cup soy sauce
-2 tbs of sugar, or to taste
-1 tsp sesame oil
-1 clove garlic, minced
-1 tsp ginger, minced
-Juice of 2 limes

1. Boil water. Once the water is boiling, add the soba noodles. Allow the noodles to cook until al dente, about ten minutes. Drain the noodles and rinse them in cold water.

2. Whisk together all the sauce ingredients. Add more sugar if desired, depending how sweet you want the sauce to be. Traditionally, cold soba noodles are dipped into sauce with chopsticks. You can do this if you want, but I just mixed the sauce in with the noodles.

3. Serve the noodles in individual bowls topped with avocado, soft tofu, green onions, grated carrots, and toasted sesame seeds. Feel free to omit or add other toppings such as cucumber, edamame, fried mushrooms, or seaweed.