DSC_0302Tonight, I was going to make some pork chile verde, but Publix didn’t have any tomatillos. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise because I realized that I’ve eaten some semblance of Mexican food every day for four days in a row, including the new “fiery” flavor of Taco Bell Doritos Locos Tacos. It was a true delicacy; I’d highly recommend it.

For some reason, the next place my mind went was soba noodles, and I was able to find a pretty solid recipe on Epicurious while in the store. A warm soba noodle salad was actually a welcome reprieve from the recent Mexican assault I had been inflicting on myself. I had to make some changes based on what was available at the grocery store and what ingredients I had at home – mainly subbing out sichuan chiles for jalapeños  and pepper flakes for sichuan peppercorns I got at the farmer’s market back when I made tom kha gai. I also used red miso instead of salt and,um, just forgot to buy sesame seed. Whoops. Anyway, if you can scrape together the ingredients and want a light supper, I’d definitely encourage you to try this noodle salad.

DSC_0281 DSC_0287Ingredients

1 pound soba noodles

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 red chiles

1 tablespoon sichuan peppercorns

6 green onions

1/4 cup tahini

1/4 cup rice wine vinegar

3 tablespoons soy sauce

1 teaspoon red miso

Salt

Process

  1. Put a large pot of water on to boil. Add salt and oil to the boiling water and cook soba noodles until al dente. Strain noodles and run cold water over them; set aside until dressing is ready.
  2. While waiting for your water to boil, heat vegetable oil over medium-high heat. Slice the whites of the green onions and de-seed and mince one of the chiles. Add the onions, chiles and sichuan pepper corns to oil and cook for about 10 minutes. You’ll notice the oil take on the color of the chiles; turn down the heat slightly if the onions start to burn.
  3. When the oil is fragrant the green onions are crispy, strain the oil into a container heatproof container and set aside.
  4. Combine the tahini, vinegar, soy sauce and miso in a large bowl and whisk all the ingredients together. Add a few tablespoons of the chile oil you strained and whisk that in, too. Add the noodles to the bowl and toss to incorporate the dressing. Serve the noodle salad in a bowl sprinkled with green onions and pieces of your second chile pepper.