Buckwheat: Not just a Little Rascal

Noodles are such an easy dish to prepare.  Just boil, toss a little sauce, and you got yourself a quick meal in a pinch.  This recent heat wave in Southern California had me longing for something cool and refreshing and I had just the thing!

I love soba noodles.  Made of buckwheat, they pack a lot of punch.  Just one cup contains only 113 calories, 24.4 grams of carbs and 5.8 grams of protein.  Compare that to regular spaghetti noodles with 220 calories, 42.8 grams and 8.1 grams of protein, soba noodles are really the way to go.  They are mostly eaten cold with a ponzu or soy sauce-based broth on the side.  You just dip a chopstick-ful of noodles into the broth and eat.  So simple!

I decided to dress mine up a bit and give it some color.  The result?  A light, refreshing dish to offset the soaring temperatures.  But don't be fooled- the vegetables and tofu gave it some heartiness to fill you up.

2 oz. soba noodles
1 tbsp sesame oil
2 1/2 to 3 oz. soft tofu (not silken), cubed
3/4 to 1 cup mixed vegetables (i.e. cabbage, broccoli, carrots, celery, radish, bean sprouts, edamame)
2 tbsp shoyu
1 1/2 tbsp rice vinegar
1/2 tsp chili garlic sauce
Dash of pepper
Green onion and/or black sesame seeds (optional)

Boil water in pot.  Add noodles and cook according to package directions.

Heat oil in pan.  Add cubed tofu.  I like to cut the tofu into tiny cubes because then they are more distributed throughout the dish rather than one chunk here and there.  Once cooked (golden color), remove from heat and cool down.  Another option here if you're trying to save on calories is to use firm tofu and you can skip the cooking step because the tofu won't crumble during the tossing process.

Cut up vegetables into small pieces, approximately the same size as the tofu.  I cheated a little bit here and bought a package a mixed vegetables so that I could skip this step.  But if you there are certain vegetables that you like over others, then by all means, use them.  Just a note, I find that "hard" veggies are better here than "soft" ones.  Things like broccoli and carrots hold up much better than tomatoes and avocados, for instance.

In separate bowl, mix shoyu, rice vinegar, chili garlic sauce and black pepper.

Add noodles, tofu and vegetables to mixing bowl.  Pour shoyu mixture over noodle mixture.  Toss everything together.  Serves 1.

This is also a great dish because it makes the perfect single serving or it can be multiplied to serve a crowd.  When serving to a group, garnish with slivered green onions or black sesame seeds for a beautiful presentation.