Cold Soba Noodle Salad with Sautéed Greens

Summer is here and we’re totally smitten with our CSA share. Every week we receive a box of fresh produce from a local farm whose profits support programs for homeless and low-income kids. We’re three weeks in, and we’ve been learning fun and interesting ways to use greens such as chard, kale, and collards. Enter our Cold Soba Noodle Salad with Sauteed Greens.

It was a wet spring in the Pacific Northwest and winter produce is still flourishing. While we look forward to the summer fruits and veggies, it’s been fun getting creative with the greens.

There have been bunches and bunches of winter greens in our CSA box. We’re talking more greens than we know what to do with.

Our CSA has showed us abundance is the mother of invention.

Raw, hearty greens can be a difficult base for a salad because of their chewy, tough texture. We love ourselves a raw kale salad, but it’s not everyone’s favorite thing. (Just check out our Facebook page to read Lindsay’s father’s opinions on kale salad.)

Our solution was to sauté the greens until tender and add cooked greens to the salad. We used kale, but you could also use collards, chard, or another favorite hearty green.

We started with a little hot sesame oil in our Vesuvio skillet (pretty much our favorite pan for anything) and added chopped scallions, cooking them for about 4 minutes. Then we added the washed, chopped kale and cooked it for approximately 8 minutes, Cooking the greens tuned the tough leaves butter-soft and sweet.

We then cooked up some soba noodles we had lying around. (Yes, The Salad Lobby folk are the kind of people who just have soba noodles lying around.) These are Japanese noodles made of buckwheat. They are traditionally served plain with a dipping sauce, but they’re also wonderful with diced vegetables for a cold noodle salad. In the past we’ve added sliced red peppers, julienned carrots, scallions and even sliced mushrooms.

But we like simple too, so we just tossed the cooked noodles with the sautéed greens and some sliced cucumbers, and tossed everything in our Peanut Lime Vinaigrette. A handful of chopped peanuts added a little crunch. If you don’t count the dressing, it’s a five-ingredient salad, which is amazing given its flavor and crunch.

If you want a dressing that’s a little creamier, add some canned coconut milk to the Peanut Lime Vinaigrette. There’s something about the super creamy dressing, the soft noodles and greens, and the crunch of the cucumbers and peanuts. And by something we mean total, utter, complete deliciousness.

This salad is enough for two hungry salad enthusiasts, or four to five smaller side salads. We packed it up in our small containers and took it for our work lunches. It wasn’t quite enough to fill us up for lunch, but paired with some fruit it was plenty.

If you find yourself with an abundance of hearty greens, we recommend the Cold Soba Noodle Salad especially for those who aren’t keen on raw greens. We know there are some salad eaters who won’t touch kale if their lives depended on it (like Lindsay’s Dad). We venture that the Cold Soba Noodle Salad will test their convictions.

Go forth, eat your greens!

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Cold Soba Noodle Salad with Sautéed Greens

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Servings: hungry salad lovers

Ingredients

• 1/4

  pound

  dried soba noodlespure buckwheat or partial buckwheat is fine

  1/4

  pound

  dried soba noodlespure buckwheat or partial buckwheat is fine

• 1

  bunch

  kale(can be substituted with collards, chard, or a combination)

  1

  bunch

  kale(can be substituted with collards, chard, or a combination)

• 4

  scallions

  4

  scallions

• 2

  Persian cucumberssliced thin (can be substituted with 1/2 English cucumber)

  2

  Persian cucumberssliced thin (can be substituted with 1/2 English cucumber)

• 1/3

  cup

  roasted peanuts,chopped

  1/3

  cup

  roasted peanuts,chopped

• 1/2

  cup

  Peanut Lime Vinaigrette

  1/2

  cup

  Peanut Lime Vinaigrette

• 1/4

  cup

  coconut milk(optional)

  1/4

  cup

  coconut milk(optional)

• 2

  tsp

  sesame oil

  2

  tsp

  sesame oil

Instructions

1. In a pot, heat 1-2 quarts of water to a boil.
2. While the water is heating, wash the kale thoroughly, trim and discard the stems, and roughly chop the leaves. Chop the scallions.
3. Heat sesame oil in a skillet. Add the scallions and cook for 3-4 minutes
4. Add the kale and cover the pan, stirring occasionally. Cook for approximately 8 minutes until the leaves are tender. If the leaves stick to the bottom of the pan, add a small amount of water.
5. When the water comes to a boil, add the soba noodles. Cook for 4 minutes. Do not overcook. Drain the noodles in a colander or sieve and rinse with cold water. Set aside.
6. Slice thin or julienne the cucumbers.
7. Prepare the Peanut Lime Vinaigrette. Stir in coconut milk if you like for a creamier dressing.
8. Combine all of the ingredients in a large bowl and toss until coated with the dressing. Chill for one hour for a cold salad or serve immediately for a lukewarm salad.

 

 

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