Asian-style chicken soba salad

Summer is coming and we are starting to get experimental with salads! We were inspired to create this Asian-inspired number after a friend ordered a similar salad from a charming and beautifully presented cafe called L'oeuf ('the egg' in french) in Mt Albert.

Soba noodles are a wonderful base to create a slightly more interesting salad. Our packet of soba noodles uses the tagline ‘quick & Japan-easy every night of the week’. We think that marketer did pretty well in summing up the soba noodle. They are ridiculously fast to prepare, are very versatile and, a bonus, are most delicious. We should note here that some soba noodles aren’t gluten-free, and are made with a mixture of wheat and buckwheat flour, we prefer using 100% buckwheat flour soba noodles.

This salad is fresh and tasty and great for a packed lunch. You don't need to stick strictly to the recipe (we never do!), feel free to experiment with different seasonal greens. You don’t need the pickled ginger, but we think that it’s one of the stand out components and is worth a try!

Asian-style chicken soba salad

Serves 4

 

You’ll need: 

Poached chicken

2 skinless, boneless, chicken breasts

3 cups hot water

3 cloves garlic, peeled and bruised

2cm fresh ginger peeled and sliced

1 handful washed coriander roots (leaves will be used for salad)

1 tsp salt

Soba noodle salad

270g dried soba noodles

100g bean sprouts
1 large carrot, julienned

2 large handfuls fresh coriander

2 handfuls mesclun

4 radishes finely sliced

½ large red onion finely sliced

1/8^th red cabbage finely sliced

3 spring onions finely sliced

50g pickled ginger

3 tsp sesame seeds

Ginger sesame dressing

1/3 cup sesame oil

3 Tbsp rice wine vinegar

3 tsp soy sauce

juice and zest 1/2 lemon

2 tsp honey

1 Tbsp freshly grated ginger

1 clove garlic finely diced

To make:

Poached chicken

1. Place chicken in a large saucepan with remaining poaching ingredients.
2. Heat until boiling then reduce to a gentle simmer.
3. Cover and cook for 12 minutes, turning chicken once after about 6 minutes. Remove from heat and leave chicken to stand (in the liquid) until cool enough to handle.

Ginger sesame dressing

Combine ingredients and whisk to combine.

Soba noodle salad

1. Cook soba noodles in rapid boiling water for 4 minutes.
2. Drain then rinse well with cold water.  Drain again to get rid of as much water as possible.
3. Combine with remaining salad ingredients reserving some coriander and/or sesame seeds for a garnish.

 

To assemble:

1. When chicken is cool enough to handle, remove the chicken from the stock pot and slice/tear into pieces.
2. Combine chicken with soba noodle salad, dressing and toss thoroughly.
3. Garnish with reserved coriander and sesame seeds.
4. It’s nice to serve this with a lemon wedge on the side.