May 19

What do you make on a busy weekday night? As long as we’re feeling asian, peanut-y flavours, this dish is our go-to. Not only is it delicious but it is so, so fast to throw together. Here are the steps I go through to whip up this meal in a snap: Put water on a boil for soba noodles, mix together sauce, cook soba noodles (they only take 3-4 minutes and it is possible to cook any vegetables you may be using in the same pot, making it a one-pot meal), rinse, reheat.


I am sure it is the same for most of you out there (is it?), but deciding what to make for dinner on weekday nights is always quite painful. We text back and forth, both proclaiming that ‘we can’t think of anything to make’ when, eventually, the need to eat something (that isn’t cereal) takes over and I manage to throw something together. I love this dish so much because all I need to have on hand (that I buy on a weekly basis) is some sort of hearty vegetable like broccoli or eggplant, the rest are all pantry staples for me.

If soba noodles aren’t something that you normally keep in your cupboard (they weren’t for me until a year or so ago), they are a great alternative to pasta. If I’m going to use any sort of Asian flavouring, 99% of the time I am making it with soba noodles. If you want something a little different (slightly more time consuming, but possible even more delicious) you can also try this soba noodle dish. It’s what got me loving and cooking with soba noodles in the first place.

This is actually the first time I measured out the ingredients for the peanut sauce. I normally just throw it all in a bowl, taste and adjust. If I am feeling something more spicy, I add some chilli sauce, something more zingy, I add some more vinegar or lime juice, and something more sweet, some extra honey. Feel free to tailor this to your own taste!

The most annoying thing about this meal is the fact that I always, always rinse my soba noodles in cold water to get rid of the gloopy consistency. Because of this, and because I am always re-heating them, I make sure to cook the soba noodles ‘al dente’- with a little bit of bite left in them. The best way to heat it up is to have a little water at the bottom of a pan, cover the pan, and steam the noodles with the sauce and vegetables until everything is warm again (mixing occasionally with tongs). At the end, everything is incorporated and the noodles are cooked through. Of course, if you’re eating this dish cold (which is also tasty), you won’t have to deal with any of that!