Soba Salad

This dish actually makes a great summer lunch since it is served cold.  The soba noodle tossed with citrus and vinegar sauce just slide down into your throat.  (But don't forget to chew it!)

It was pretty warm today here in East TN.  Nice and sunny.  It was such a teat after the cold weather.  So I decided to cook one of my favorite dish that is not really suitable for a cold day.  

*Soba Noodle Salad*

8 oz Soba

1/2 package of Tofu

1/2 medium tomato

1 avocado

Some lettuce, herbs, or scallion for garnish

*Sauce*

Lemon juice form 1/2 lemon

1 table spoon rice wine vinegar

2 table spoon soy sauce

2 tea spoon freshly graded ginger

1 tea spoon sugar

1 tea spoon sesame oil

< 1 > Start boiling soba according to the package.

< 2 > Cut the tofu to bite size and place it on a colander to get lid of excess liquid.

< 3 > Mix all the ingredients for the sauce in a large bowl.

< 4 > Cut tomato and avocado into bite size and mix with the sauce.  

< 5 > After soba is boiled, immediately rinse soba with cold water to cool the temperature down.  But make sure the noodles are drained well.

< 6 > Mix soba and tofu in the mix.

*Condiment*

Garnishing with thinly chopped scallion, or red onion is nice.  Serving this noodle salad on a bed of leaf is one of my favorite way of eating especially if I have mizuna.

As for the herbs, fresh shiso will be really refreshing but I can't get it at where I live.  In NY suburb, it was so easy since there were lots of Japanese stores.  I'm pretty certain it could be found in Japanese store anywhere, but Chinese don't use shiso, so they usually don't carry it.I'm planning to grow them in the garden when spring comes.  Cilantro will work well for this dish but if you want to feel Far East instead of South Asia, I wouldn't recommend it.

You can mix some spicy thai sauce, or wasabi into the sauce, or serve the dish with togarashi powder (Japanese powdered red pepper) on the side.