I am a complete foodie. I love eating and I also enjoy cooking. But as much as I enjoy cooking, any recipe I attempt has to be fairly simple and not have too many ingredients but it still has to have bags of flavour. And of late, the recipes have to be family friendly. I spent over 2 years cooking 2 separate meals a day as Anya is a very fussy kid. But in recent months I’ve tried to find healthy recipes that all of us can enjoy and I’ve managed to find a fair few so I thought I would start sharing them here. First I want to share these Japanese inspired sesame soba noodles which are a firm favourite in our home because they are delicious, versatile and very quick and easy to make. The ingredients are mostly store cupboard things so this is my go to dish when I’ve got nothing planned for dinner or if I’m short of time as you can literally make it in under 10 minutes.
Sesame soba noodles
Serves: 2
200gms soba noodles
1 handful baby spinach
1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds
Dressing:
5 tsp light soy sauce
1-1.5 tsp chinese rice vinegar
2 tsp runny honey
1 tsp sesame oil
Cook the noodles according to the instructions on the packet. While they’re cooking, mix together all the ingredients for the dressing. The dressing can be adapted to your taste so if you like it sweeter add a bit more honey or if you prefer a sharper taste, add more vinegar. Just keep tasting as you conservatively add the ingredients till you get the right mix for you. My quantities will give you a dressing that isn’t too sweet or sharp, but veers towards sweeter.
Finely chop the spinach and add it to the noodles about 10 seconds before the noodles are done. Drain the cooked noodles with spinach and rinse them well with cold water (do this even if your packet instructions don’t say this). The noodles are best eaten at room temperature or slightly chilled.
Heat a frying pan on a high heat and add the sesame seeds to lightly toast them. Keep moving them around the pan so they don’t burn. You need to watch these closely as once they start toasting they burn easily. Once they’re a pale golden brown, remove from the heat and tip in to a small bowl.
Mix the spinach clad noodles with the dressing, sprinkle with sesame seeds and eat!
Anya enjoys these noodles on their own but we often have them with a piece of grilled teriyaki fish. Alternatively, you can top the noodles with a fried or poached egg and it’s even yummier. If you don’t have spinach, you can add raw shredded carrot instead. There are endless possibilities for what goes with these noodles so just get creative as that’s the beauty of this dish. And the other big advantage is that I get a fussy child to eat spinach!
The dressed noodles keep in the fridge for a day so the leftovers are great for a ready made lunch or an after school snack. Just don’t add the sesame seeds till you’re ready to eat as they get soggy with the dressing.
I’ve joined in with tasty Tuesdays where you can find more foodie inspiration.
*I have adapted this recipe from Nigella’s soba noodle recipe found in her Forever Summer cookbook.
Wow, simply stunning shots. I would love you to link up to #Tastytuesdays tomorrow if you fancied it! Some divine foodies link up!
Thank you – I am trying to learn photography. And yes will check out the link-up tomorrow.
I love the new ebabee likes! I blend everything (read: vegetables) in the sauce that way there is no argument from my peanut gallery.
Thank you! Maybe I will try that too. Need a few more veggie disguising tricks in my repertoire.
Love the look of this, actually a similar idea to my #TastyTuesdy post too. Love sesame seeds, the best part of a baguette is the seeds left in the bag!
Thanks – it’s delicious and so easy. Try it 🙂
Wow these look delicious! Will definitely have to try them, it’d be a great way to get Spinach into Monkey (and hubby and I too tbh!) Thanks for sharing #TastyTuesdays
ha, ha… hope it works 🙂
These look so yummy. Love your photos x
Thanks 🙂
Such stunning food styling and food photography-love it! Thanks so much for linking up to #tastytuesdays If you could add my badge or link back, would really appreciate it! Hope you can link up again x
Nice dinner to make mid-week when you have run out of pretty much everything in the fridge. I love a new, quick and easy recipe. Amazing food styling. Thanks for sharing! Mel ‘TastyTuesdays
Thank you! And it’s especially good in Summer. A yummy dinner when it’s so hot outside 🙂
That sounds really yummy, and love the photos too 🙂 #TastyTuesdays
Thanks you. It’s a great dish for a hit Summers day too – easy and cooling! 🙂
Si simple and yet I can already taste the sesame in my mouth! #TastyTuesdays
Thanks. I LOVE sesame seeds, brings a dish to life 🙂
That sounds lovely and simple and tasty too. We all love noodles here (especially our 7 year old) so I reckon this is one for us to try. Pinning it now.
#TastyTuesdays
It’s a perfect Summer dish and goes down a treat with most kids 🙂
Dreamy as usual and Anya sounds just like Oliver, he could live on pasta forever if he had his way-love this recipe, gorgeous photos and styling as ever too. Thanks for linking up to #tastytuesdays
Thank you my friend for such a lovely comment 🙂
Yum, I really like soba noodles and this sound great #tastytuesday
It is delicious and no effort involved – my kind of food 🙂
Hey beautiful! As I was looking for your recipe to make for Father’s Day tomorrow, I realised I’d forgotten to comment when you linked to #TastyTuesdays. My noodle-obsessed Hubby will be a happy man tomorrow!
Wish your hubby Happy fathers day from me too and hope he enjoys those noodles. We have a kitchen as of last night (yay!) and you have just reminded me that I need to make those noodles very soon too. Thanks 🙂