Green tea noodles
This refreshing chilled noodle dish from Ottolenghi COMFORT pairs green soba noodles with slippery wakame and crunchy radishes. It’s a great light lunch, as much of a seaweed salad as it is a noodle salad, with lots of fresh herbs and spring onions.
Extracted from Ottolenghi COMFORT by Yotam Ottolenghi, Helen Goh, Verena Lochmuller and Tara Wigley (Ebury Press, £30). All photography by Jonathan Lovekin.
Cold noodles on a warm day are as comforting as warm noodles on a cold day. It’s the way they are eaten – holding the bowl with one hand, chopsticks or fork in the other, head slightly lowered; it’s their texture – slippery and substantial; it’s their receptiveness to all the other textures and flavours going on in the same bowl.
Getting ahead: All the components can be made in advance here – the noodles and radishes up to 2 days ahead, the dressing up to 3 days – kept separate, in the fridge, ready for the dish to be assembled in just a minute.
Ingredients note: Wakame has an interestingly oceanic flavour, which works so well against the avocado. The texture is also great: slippery, crunchy and chewy at once. It’s widely available but, as an alternative, packs of sea vegetable salad also work well.
Ingredients
Metric
Imperial
- 25g of wakame seaweed, or a pack of sea vegetable salad
- 200g of green tea noodles
- 2 tsp sesame oil
- 1 avocado, peeled and sliced
- 3 spring onions, thinly sliced (45g)
- 10g of basil leaves
- 1 tbsp of sesame seeds, toasted (a mix of black and white looks great)
Sake-pickled radishes
Lemon soy dressing
- 50ml of lemon juice
- 50ml of rice wine vinegar, or white wine vinegar
- 75ml of light soy sauce
- 2 tbsp of mirin
- 15g of ginger, peeled and finely grated
- 1 garlic clove, crushed
Method
Pickle the radishes up to 2 days (or at least 30 minutes) ahead of eating. Place them in a medium bowl and add ¾ teaspoon of salt. Using your hands, gently massage for a minute or two, then add the remaining pickle ingredients. Transfer to a small bowl or jar and keep in the fridge until ready to use
Rehydrate the seaweed: this takes 30 minutes in cold water (which is the best option) or 10 minutes in hot water. Once rehydrated, drain and roughly tear any very large pieces and set aside in the fridge
- 25g of wakame seaweed, or a pack of sea vegetable salad
Place all the ingredients for the lemon soy dressing in a large screw-top jar and shake to combine. Keep in the fridge until ready to use
- 50ml of lemon juice
- 50ml of rice wine vinegar, or white wine vinegar
- 75ml of light soy sauce
- 2 tbsp of mirin
- 15g of ginger, peeled and finely grated
- 1 garlic clove, crushed
Bring a large pot of water to the boil. Add the noodles, stir, then cook for 3 minutes. Add enough cold water to stop the boiling process and continue to cook for another 2 minutes. Drain in a sieve and rinse under cold running water
- 200g of green tea noodles
Drain well again, then transfer to a large bowl and add the sesame oil, mixing it through with your hands. Cover and keep in the fridge until cold
- 2 tsp sesame oil
When ready to serve, use your hands to loosen and separate the noodles and add all the dressing, the drained radishes, wakame, avocado, spring onions and basil
- 1 avocado, peeled and sliced
- 3 spring onions, thinly sliced (45g)
- 10g of basil leaves
Toss gently to mix through, then transfer to a rimmed serving platter or shallow bowl
Scatter over the toasted sesame seeds and serve
- 1 tbsp of sesame seeds, toasted (a mix of black and white looks great)
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