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Prep time
30 minutes
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Cook time
1 hour 15 minutes
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Serves
4
Author Notes
When spring rolls around the weather is heats up in San Francisco after chilly winters. When I was growing up, warmer months meant chilled dishes like hiyashi chuka, Hawaii-style somen salad, Japanese-style somen (served on a glass plate and over ice to cool you down) and of course, soba salad. Soba salad also makes an easy, make-ahead lunch! Here’s my California take on a classic soba salad. —Kristin Eriko Posner
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Ingredients
- Sauce Ingredients
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1/2 cup
toasted black sesame seeds
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2 tablespoons
toasted sesame oil
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2 tablespoons
soy sauce
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2 tablespoons
tahini
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1 tablespoon
rice vinegar
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1 tablespoon
honey
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1 tablespoon
grated/finely chopped ginger
- Other Ingredients
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2
carrots, cut into matchsticks
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Watercress or other leafy green
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Spring vegetables of your choice, cooked (asparagus, snap peas, and fiddleheads are all great additions)
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1
avocado, sliced
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Shimeji mushrooms, lightly cooked in boiling water
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lightly pickled red onions
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7-minute egg
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4
servings of fresh soba noodles (look in the refrigerator or freezer section of your local Japanese grocery store)
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Sansho powder for sprinkling
Directions
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First, toast your sesame seeds on a pan over the stove for a few minutes, until fragrant. I re-toast them even if the package says they are toasted because I think it helps coax out the flavor. Remove from the heat and cool for five minutes.
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Toss the toasted sesame seeds into a blender and blend until it starts to stick together and becomes paste-like.
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Add the remaining sauce ingredients and blend again until well combined.
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Reheat soba noodles according to package instructions. I prefer to use refrigerated or frozen soba noodles because the springy texture is far superior to dried soba noodles. If you don’t have access to a Japanese grocery store, dried soba works fine in this recipe, too.
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Toss soba noodles with dressing. Arrange remaining ingredients artfully on top of each bowl. Sprinkle with sansho powder and serve!
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