Rocking it Asian Style - Super Soba!

Soba, the Japanese buckwheat noodles most often served in both hot and chilled broths, appear here in a salad. They are widely available, usually sold in boxes or plastic bags in the Asian section of the supermarket. I've kept the vegetable additions basic, but feel free to put in slivered radishes for more colour or to substitute slivered green beans for the snow peas.

Cook Time: 5 minutes

Serves: 4

• 1 teaspoon coarse salt
• 200-270g soba noodles
• 2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
• 
  

Dressing

• ¹/³ cup unseasoned Japanese rice vinegar
• ¼ cup mild-flavored extra-virgin olive oil or other vegetable oil
• 3 tablespoons tamari or soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon grated peeled fresh ginger
• 1 garlic clove, grated

Vegetables

• 
  
• 1/4 red onion thinly sliced
• 100g snow peas, cut into ¼-inch diagonals (about 1½ cups)
• 1/2 bag of mung bean sprouts
• 1 cup of shredded cabbage
• 1/4 capsicum julienne 

• 1 medium carrot, finely shredded (about ½ cup)
• ½ cup thin matchsticks of cucumber (seeds removed)
• 1/4 cup of toasted cashews/peanuts/sesame seeds

Meat

  

  200g pork mince

  1 Tbsp sesame/peanut oil

  2 Tbsp sweet chilli sauce

1. Heat wok with oil and stir fry pork mince with the chilli sauce until golden brown. Set aside.

2. Bring a medium saucepan three-fourths full of water to a boil. Add the salt and noodles to the boiling water and cook until tender, 3 to 4 minutes. Drain the noodles in a strainer. Rinse with cold water. Transfer the noodles to a bowl and toss with the sesame oil. Refrigerate until ready to mix with other ingredients.

3. To make the dressing: In a small bowl, whisk the rice vinegar, oil, soy, ginger, garlic and salt until blended.

4. Add the snow peas, onion, carrot, cucumber, mung beans, cabbage and half of the dry roasted nuts/seeds to the soba noodles. Add the dressing and toss to thoroughly blend. Top with the remaining nuts/sesame seeds.

Serve cold.

Substitutions

-Substitute diagonally sliced asparagus, 1-inch lengths of green beans and/or mixed mushrooms.

-You can use any meat on hand - diced chicken/pork/beef etc.

This was a big hit in my flat! A real crowd pleaser!

I also found a brilliant website that is straight forward and allows you to compare two foods' nutritional content:

http://www.twofoods.com/