Yummy in your tummy!
Kelly Rossiter
My husband loves Japanese food, so when I come across an interesting looking recipe, I'm keen to give it a try. This soba noodle recipe is unusual for Japanese cuisine as it contains tomatoes. When I first made it I followed the directions and put a lot of the broth into the bowl, but it was hard to eat, a bit like eating spaghetti soup. I had lots of broth left over, so I made more soba noodles for lunch the next day and I just put a bit of broth in the bottom of the bowl and that worked better. I also added a pinch of red pepper flakes for a bit of heat and garnished the noodles with cilantro the second day.
Ultimately, I think my problem was with the noodles themselves. They were very light coloured and probably a combination of buckwheat and another flour. They didn't have a whole lot of flavour, and they were very soft. I have another package of soba noodles that are quite brown and obviously contain more buckwheat flour and I should have used them. You want a bit of texture in a soba noodle dish, and you want the nutty flavour of the buckwheat to come through. I quite liked the broth with this dish, so I'll have to try it again with different noodles.
I used pearl onions in this recipe rather than green onions. My rule of thumb for buying produce is, if it grows in Ontario, then I only buy it when it is available from Ontario farmers. All the green onions on sale now are from Mexico, so I'll have to wait until spring for green onions.
