*Bento* Cold Soba with Peanut Sauce and Veggies

[Guest guest]

We like this for lunch and it is good at any temperature. Carl prefers

fettuccine noodles, so I do those for him and soba (buckwheat noodles) for

myself. I don't have specific amounts because it is one of those a little bit of

this and that dishes. This is not traditional Japanese, more of a Southern USA

meets Japan in the pasta bowl thing.

 

My favorite Hot Weather Soba with Peanut Sauce and Vegetables

 

Soba, boiled, drained and washed in cold water

Raw cucumber, cut in small slivers (not a lot)

 

 

Scallions, thinly sliced

Peanut butter (Your choice, creamy, chunky, natural, whatever) For one serving I

use between 1 and 2 tablespoons)

1/4 teaspoon sugar or a bit of honey

Dark soy sauce (1 to 2 tablespoons per serving)

Chili-garlic sauce to taste (hard to find in stores down here. Look in Indian or

Oriental markets) I use a very tiny amount, maybe half the size of a pencil

eraser

Wasabi peas (the fried ones),  optional garnish

Chopped, salted and roasted peanuts, optional garnish

 

 

Boil soba, drain then wash in cold water. Drain well. Whisk peanut butter,

sugar, soy sauce and chili-garlic paste together.

 

Toss scallions, cucumber and drained soba together then toss with soy

sauce-peanut mixture. Put in bowl in bento box (or plate, bowl, whatever,

wherever you're serving) and sprinkle chopped, salted peanuts on top. If you

like, garnish with a sprinkling of wasabi peas. (Green pea snack with wasabi -

addictive, hot, lovely) Carl doesn't like wasabi peas but he does like radishes,

so I put a thinly sliced radish on top of his noodles. The pasta will suck up

the liquid, so when doing this as a to go lunch, I put a jar of the sauce in

with the noodles to add as needed.

 

I like to line the bowl with a couple leaves of lettuce and top with the sauced

soba. Sometimes I will substitute slivers of raw carrot for the cucumbers, or

omit it all together.

 

When I serve this in the bento (lunch box, whatever!), I like to plan something

sweet and a marinated salad with it. The hot/sour/sweet/creamy/crunchy tastes

and textures are nice together. It is also good with some leftover slices of

grilled veggies like yellow squash or zucchini, Japanese eggplant, grilled

asparagus and a couple slices of fried green tomatoes.  (any,all, whatever you

like) The sweet can be a nice bit of fruit.Some gorgeous red flame or black

grapes or a bowl of mixed berries would be pretty.

 

It works with cashew butter and chopped cashews as well. Carl uses a fork (the

heathen)

 

Jeanne in GA