Cold soba noodle salad served with scallions, cucumber, salmon roe and a lush sesame-miso dressing makes for the perfect quick-and-easy meal. It’s full of flavor and refreshing!
If you’re in the mood for salad, then try my Smashed Cucumber Salad with Tahini-Miso Dressing, next!
Cold Soba Noodle Salad
Days when I feel like cranking on the stove for too long, I go for this cold soba noodle salad. This salad packs a lot of flavor and has a beautiful balance of textures. Perfect for lunch, al fresco dining and meals on-the-go.
What Makes this Cold Soba Noodle Salad Worth it?
- For one, it’s refreshing. On warmer days, skip on a traditional green salad and go for something with varied texture and bright umami flavor.
- It’s simple to make and comes together pretty quickly
- Sesame-miso dressing–this alone, is enough reason to make it. It’s a great balance of creamy, bright, umami, and nutty.
Sesame-Miso Dressing–Flavorful and Functional
What’s great about this dressing is that it lightly clings to the soba, lending to a flavorful experience with each bite. The thick, umami-rich miso has a texture that acts as a magnet to the soba, entwining it with flavor.
What is Soba?
Soba is a Japanese noodle made of buckwheat flour, water and sometimes whole wheat flour. It has a rich chestnut color and is typically served on a bamboo tray chilled with a dipping sauce (zaru soba) or slurped along with hot soup.
Soba has a lovely chewy texture and when choosing one, buckwheat flour should be the first ingredient. Soba with higher buckwheat will be darker in brown color.
Level Up with Salmon Roe
Salmon roe is eggs of salmon. Added to this soba noodle salad adds depth of flavor, rounding this dish out. If you decide to opt out of using it, no biggie, the soba salad will still taste fantastic.
Tips and Tricks For Perfect Soba
Clumped soba is never fun, so here’s a few tips to ensure you get it right every time.
- Follow package directions for cooking time. Soba takes less time to cook than spaghetti noodles and different brands vary in time, so check early and often.
- Skip salting the water as the manufacturer may have already salted the noodles and the sesame-miso dressing is rich in flavor.
- Rinse noodles with cold water after draining to seize further cooking and remove excess starch that will cause clumping.
Cold Soba Noodle Salad Ingredients
Start by making the dressing, first. This will give time for the flavors to marry.
- Ginger
- Garlic
- Sesame oil
- White miso paste
- Rice vinegar
- Sesame seeds
- Mirin
- Sugar
After whipping up the dressing, prepare ingredients for the salad.
- Soba noodles
- Scallions
- Persian cucumber
- Roasted sesame seeds
- Salmon roe
- Shredded nori
In the Mood for Salad?
Soba Noodle Salad on Repeat
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Cold Soba Noodle Salad
Ingredients
Dressing
- ½ teaspoon ginger, grated
- 1 small clove of garlic, grated
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil
- 1 tablespoon white miso paste
- ¾ tablespoon rice vinegar
- 1 teaspoon sesame seeds
- 1 tablespoon mirin
- ¾ teaspoon sugar
- 2 teaspoons water
Soba Noodle Salad
- 6 ounces soba noodles
- ¼ cup scallions, diagonally sliced
- ¾ Persian cucumber, thinly sliced
- 1 teaspoon roasted sesame seeds
- ¼ cup salmon roe
- Shredded nori
Instructions
Dressing
- Add all dressing ingredients to a bowl and mix well. Set aside to allow flavors to marry.
Soba Noodle Salad
- Prepare soba noodles according to package. When cooked, drain and rinse with cold water to seize cooking and remove surface starch.
- Divide into two bowls and top with scallions, cucumber, salmon roe, roasted sesame seeds.
- Pour dressing over and mix well.our dressing over and mix well.