Soba Noodle Salad With Spring Herbs
Today is horrifyingly gloomy. Isn’t it May? Maybe I imagined it, but I was sure that Spring had already arrived. Lately, sunny days are far and few between. So far, this is all i have eaten, with a mug of green tea on the side of course.
SERVES 4
1/4 cup fresh chives, chopped finely
1/4 cup fresh mint leaves, chopped finely
1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped finely
3 scallions, sliced thinly
1 cup cucumber, diced quite small
1/3 cup rice vinegar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon grapeseed oil
8oz dry soba noodles
1 1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
enough sesame seeds to garnish
Prep all herbs, cucumber and scallions so they will be ready when your noodles have finished cooking.
Boil water in a medium sized pot. Meanwhile, add vinegar, soy sauce, sesame oil, grapeseed oil, sugar and salt in a wide bowl. Stir to dissolve sugar.
When water is boiling, add noodles to the pot. Cook for 3 minutes. Drain into a colander and rinse well with cold water.
Add rinsed noodles to the bowl with the oil and vinegar mixture. Toss well to coat the strands of the noodles. Add herbs, cucumber, and scallions and mix well. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and serve.
My Fattoush Salad
I recently ate at a delicious Lebanese restaurant here in vancouver called Nuba. It was fantastic and inspired me to start cooking Middle Eastern style food. This salad is a variation of the fattoush salad. Other ingredients you may want to add are cucumbers and tomatoes. Enjoy!
SERVES 2
1 Large Toasted Pita, broken up into quarter sized pieces
1/2 head of green leaf lettuce, sliced into thin strips
1/4 cup flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
1/4 cup mint leaves, finely chopped
2 scallions, thinly sliced
8 kalamata olives, pitted and quarted
juice from half a lemon
2 tablespoons olive olive oil
2 teaspoons zatar
1 garlic clove
salt to taste
Put lettuce, parsley, mint, olives and onions in a wide bowl. Meanwhile, crush garlic with a large knife, chop finely, add a pinch of salt and smash into a paste with a large knife. Add lemon juice, olive oil, zatar and garlic with a pinch of salt in a small bowl and whisk together to emulsify. Pour dressing over salad leaves and toss with your hands to coat evenly. Add pieces of toasted pita and lightly toss. Serve!
So tasty! You might want to eat the whole thing by yourself! (I did).
Greens and Eggs
This is something i was inspired to make after rummaging through my fridge this morning. It’s always fun to let the ingredients you already have lead the way.
Greens and Eggs
serves 1
Ingredients:
– 2 eggs
– 1/2 a bunch of dandelion greens, stems trimmed off and leaves roughly chopped (you could use practically any greens you want instead, but dandelion is especially healthy!)
– 1 green onion, thinly sliced
– cooking oil, i used grapeseed
-1/4 tsp zaatar
-1/2 tsp tumeric
-1/2 tsp cumin
-salt and pepper to taste
Heat up oil in a small pan over med-high. Add the greens and the onions. Stir in all of the spices and some salt and pepper. Cook for about 1 minute or until greens are wilted but still vibrant green.
Meanwhile, beat the eggs in a small bowl. When greens are done cooking, add them to the eggs. Mix well to coat the greens with the eggs.
Heat up the pan you have just used, you shouldn’t even need anymore oil. Add egg mixture. Cook until eggs are almost set on bottom and use a spatula to stir and scramble the eggs. You could always leave it as an omelet style as well, but i liked it this way today.
Enjoy!!
Note: I am addicted to condiments, so you might notice that i used ketchup and hot sauce in the photo.
Secret Feasts 