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Cold Soba Noodle Bowl with Seared Maitake Mushrooms

This chilled soba noodle bowl is refreshing, flavorful, and super nutritious with 100% buckwheat soba noodles, which are naturally gluten-free, tofu hard boiled "egg" and pan seared garlicky maitake mushrooms. It's also super quick to put together, you can whip up two servings under 15 minutes!

Soba is a type of Japanese noodle made from buckwheat. They're thin, chewy, has a lovely buckwheat aroma, and if they're made of pure backwheat (some varieties do have wheat flour in them so read the ingredients carefully if you are allergic ) then they are natrually gluten-free! And did you know buckwheat is also a complete protein source? Mean it contains all nine essential amino acids! That makes buckwheat one of the rare superfoods.

Traditionally, soba noodles are served either chilled with a dipping sauce or hot as in a noodle soup. This noodle bowl is like a twist on the chilled soba noodle dish but instead of serving the sauce separately, I kept them all in one bowl as a refreshing broth.

This bowl is completed with a tofu hard-boiled "egg", the recipe for which you can find in this link, and maitake mushrooms to zezz it up a little! Maitake mushrooms are also called "hen of the woods", a fitting name for their meaty, juicy texture and unbelievable flavor. Trust me they don't need to be smothered in seasonings, we wanna let their natural beauty shine. 

Follow the simple steps in the video and refer to the measurements below. And find me on Instagram and Tiktok let's connect! ^^


INGREDIENTS:

*for two bowls

4 oz soba noodle

3-4 oz maitake mushroom

2 tablespoon olive oil plus a little more

2 teaspoon minced garlic

2 tofu egg

1 scallion, chopped

1 tablespoon furikake flakes

Kimchi for serving, optional


For the broth -

I used 2 cups of water plus 1 tablespoon of Yondu Sauce, which is a super flavorful and convenient sauce made from organic vegetables, soy beans, and rice, you can get it on amazon starting at only $6.99;

Or, you can make a dashi in this ramen recipe


TO MAKE:

- Cut the maitake mushroom in half, heat a drizzle of oil in a large nonstick pan over medium-high heat;

- Sear the maitake mushroom in the pan cut side down first, for about 3 minutes till golden brown;

- Carefully flip and sear the other side for another 2 - 3 minutes, you can gently press on it with your spatula;

- Meanwhile mix together the minced garlic and 2 tbsp olive oil, when both sides of the mushrooms are seared, drizzle the garlic oil mixture around the mushrooms, lower the heat to medium-low;

- Cook till the garlic is golden brown and aromatic, turn off the heat and set the mushrooms aside;

- Cook the soba noodles according to package instructions, I just bring a pot of water to boil then cook the noodles for 3 - 4 minutes;

- Once noodles are cooked, immediately rinse them in ice water, rinse till they're no longer sticky and chilled;

- Transfer noodles to a bowl, add the broth and toppings - mushroom, tofu "egg", chopped scallion and furikake flakes, I also added some kimichi on the side;

- Serve cold, enjoy!


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