Cold Soba Salad with Chicken, Basil, and Bell Peppers

One of my favorite summer dishes that my mom used to cook when I was younger was simple soba that she'd serve cold in lil bundles that we'd dip in cold tsuyu seasoned with wasabi and with lots of handfuls of chopped green onions and nori seaweed.  That started my love affair with soba.  I continued this love affair in my adulthood, even though I never cooked it myself, by frequenting one of my favorite midtown New York lunch spots, Soba Nippon, where I'd eat soba warm in a delicious broth during the winter and then cold as part of a huge chicken salad during the warmer months.  I haven't come across a soba preparation that I didn't like!

I was recently craving soba again but it's been way too hot and humid to even think of eating it warm in a broth (Chicken Soba Soup with Poached Egg) and I didn't have any tsuyu handy (well I did find a bottle in the very back of my pantry but I won't even tell you how old the expiration date was!) so I decided a cold soba salad would be a perfect healthy and delicious dish!  The fresh basil and vinegar/lime juice sauce really make this meal for me.  And topping it with some coarse salt, black pepper, toasted sesame seeds, and spicy red pepper boost the flavors of the dish.  This soba salad is pretty easy to make and can be really quick to put together if you do all the chopping in advance.

Servings: 4 (but if you go back for seconds then this would serve 2)

Ingredients:
8-9 ounces soba
2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
2 limes, squeezed
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 bell peppers, thinly sliced,
1-2 cups fresh basil leaves, thinly sliced
2-3 cups chicken, cooked and shredded
1 tablespoon sesame seeds, toasted
Salt and black pepper, to taste
Red pepper (gochugaru) (optional)

Instructions:

• Cook 8-9 oz of soba according to packet instructions al dente.  Rinse cooked soba in cold water, drain, and set aside.
• In a large bowl whisk together 2 tbsps toasted sesame oil, juice from 2 limes, and 2 tbsps rice vinegar.  Add salt and pepper to taste.
• Toast 1 tbsp sesame seeds until lightly browned.  Watch this carefully as sesame seeds can go from beautifully toasted to terribly burnt real quickly.  
• Add to the large bowl with the sauce 2 sliced bell peppers, 1-2 cups thinly sliced basil, 2-3 cups shredded chicken, and the cold soba.  Toss until well mixed and sauce evenly covers all the ingredients.
• Top each bowl with toasted sesame seeds and additional salt and pepper to taste.  
• Optional: Add some red pepper for a spicy kick.  I like to add gochugaru, which is a Korean red pepper powder which I mooch from my mom.

Sorry girls, this is spicy and not for you!  I did set aside tiny bites of chicken before adding it to the noodles and gave the girls a lil taste as a reward for posing nicely for these photos.

Adapted from Martha Stewart.

Chicken Soba Soup with Poached Egg

I love soba and usually eat it cold during the hot summer months (such a perfect summer dish) but whenever I crave it during the cold winter months, I like to cook it up with a nice hot savory broth.  This dish is essentially various things I love thrown together - soba, broth, mushrooms, spinach, garlic, ginger!  And what the hell, I'll throw in a poached egg!  I added the poached egg because I love them, but let me tell you this totally made the dish! I wish I had cooked up more because when I went back for seconds (and maybe thirds), I was really wishing I had a poached egg for each bowl.  

If you're making this for multiple meals, then I'd advise dividing the ingredients per day and cook fresh as soba is best cooked fresh and it doesn't take that much time.  The pictures below are for me making half of the recipe and I also kinda wing it when it comes to the ingredients at times, depending on what I have available or am craving (this includes the amount of mushrooms, chicken, and spices).  This is definitely a recipe you can tweak according to your preferences.

Servings: 4 (but really for me, it's more like 2)

Ingredients:

12 ounces mushrooms (I used baby bella and shiitake), sliced

4 scallions, chopped and with white/light green and dark green parts separated

5 oz shredded chicken

4 eggs, poached (one per serving - so it depends on how much you're eating per serving)

1 garlic clove, minced

1 tablespoon fresh ginger, peeled and minced

4 cups low-sodium chicken broth

2 cups water

3 cups baby leaf spinach

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar

2 bundles of soba

Salt, pepper, red pepper (gochugaru), and shichimi (Japanese spice blend) to taste

Instructions:

• Cook two bundles of soba according to packet instructions.  Rinse cooked soba in cold water, drain, and set aside.
• In a large pot, spray with a cooking spray and heat over medium heat.  
• Add 12 oz sliced mushrooms, 1 minced garlic clove, 1 tablespoon minced ginger, white/light green chopped parts of 4 green onions.  Cook until mushrooms are tender, stirring occasionally, about 5-6 minutes.

• Add 4 cups chicken broth, 2 cups water, and 5 oz shredded chicken.  Bring to a boil and then simmer for 7-10 minutes.  

• While broth is simmering, poach 4 eggs (or more!).  To poach each egg, bring about 1 inch of water to a boil and then reduce heat.  Crack an egg in a small bowl/ramekin and splash some vinegar into the water (the vinegar helps the egg white hold together).  Once bubbles have stopped rising to the top, use a large spoon to gently circle the water a few times and then slip in the egg.  Cover and then after 3 minutes spoon out the egg and lay on a plate covered with a paper towel to absorb the water. 
• Stir in 3 cups fresh spinach until leaves are soft, about 1 minute.  
• Add 1 tablespoon soy sauce, 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar.
• You can either add the soba to the pot, or you can do what I like to do and prepare the bowls for serving with a handful of soba, a poached egg on top, and a handful of dark green chopped parts of 4 green onions.

• I also like to add a sprinkling of gochugaru and shichimi.  You can get these at an Asian market, or you can do what I do, which is mooch some off of my mom.

• Pour the broth mixture over the noodles and egg, and enjoy!

Ignore any pleading looks you get from begging pugs.

I LOVE the poached egg in this soup.  The runny yolk makes the broth so savory and delicious!