Serves 4
This Japanese-inspired dish brings back lovely memories of our old home in North Bondi, where we’d have a soba noodle salad every week during summer. It’s light, fresh and perfect for a midsummer lunch or dinner on a balmy night. The wakame seaweed is one of the ultimate glow foods with its high doses of magnesium, iodine, calcium and vitamins. I love the miso-poached chicken for its flavour and tenderness, but you can also try this salad with an oily fish, such as salmon or trout. Trust me – you will feel great after eating this!
Happy & Whole
Recipes and images have been supplied from
Happy & Whole by Magdalena Roze, published by Plum, RRP $35. Available from all good bookstores or online www.panmacmillan.com.au/9781925481426/
INGREDIENTS
2 tablespoons white miso paste
20 g dried wakame, soaked in cold water for 10 minutes, then drained
2 spring onions, roughly chopped, plus extra, thinly sliced, to serve
4 cm piece of ginger, sliced
500 g chicken breast fillets
180 g soba noodles
2 teaspoons sesame oil
250 g daikon, cut into matchsticks (see note)
160 g (1 cup) frozen podded edamame beans, blanched
1 Lebanese cucumber, trimmed, halved lengthways and thinly sliced
90 g (1⁄3 cup) pickled ginger
1 teaspoon black sesame seeds
shredded nori sheet, to serve
Dressing
180 g (3/4 cup) sour cream
2 spring onions, finely chopped
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
2 teaspoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil
METHOD
1 Place the miso, wakame, spring onion, ginger, chicken and 500ml (2 cups) of water in a saucepan over high heat. Bring to a simmer then reduce the heat to low, cover with the lid and gently poach for 10–12 minutes until the chicken is cooked. Remove from the heat and allow the chicken to sit in the poaching liquid for 20 minutes before removing from the pan and slicing thickly. Strain the poaching liquid, reserving the wakame for the salad and 125ml (½ cup) of the liquid for the noodles. Discard the spring onion and ginger.
2 Cook the noodles in a saucepan of boiling salted water for 3–4 minutes. Drain the noodles under cold running water and transfer to a bowl. Pour over the reserved strained poaching liquid and sesame oil, and mix to combine. Cover and refrigerate until required.
3 To make the dressing, whisk the ingredients in a bowl until well combined.
4 To serve, toss the noodles with the reserved wakame, daikon, edamame and cucumber, and transfer to a serving platter. Top with the chicken, extra spring onion, pickled ginger, sesame seeds and nori, and drizzle over the dressing.