I was clearing off my desk the other day, which led me to another pile of detritus–I ended up sorting through that and found a recipe I’d meant to try that sounded delicious: cold soba and salmon salad. Long story short, I had an incident with a road-rage-filled motorcyclist on the way to the grocery store, so my mind was no longer focused on shopping as I dashed through the store worried that Mr. Rage might be doing harm to my vehicle in the parking lot. A police officer followed me out of the parking lot and partway home to be sure I wasn’t in any danger.

Suffice it to say, my nerves were all jangly as I began to prepare dinner. I hadn’t been able to find soba noodles at all, I forgot the cucumber and was not going to wait to chill the dish as I needed to eat something.

It was just as well that they didn’t have the soba noodles as they are kind of chewy and don’t absorb flavor as well as other noodles in my opinion. I am keen on lo mein, so I was happy, but I’ll put links below for recipes with soba noodles. Also, I couldn’t face waiting for a chunk of salmon from the seafood counter, so I got a package of sliced salmon instead and used the whole package. It was enough for two people but a chunk would have been nicer. The thin slices made for much quicker prep time though.

I got the water boiling for the lo mein noodles while I chopped the peppers — I got an assorted package of multi-colored small peppers–sliced up five of them and two medium sized zucchinis and browned them in a skillet with a generous amount of sesame oil. When they were done, I scooped them out, set them aside in a bowl and popped the sliced salmon into the skillet, breaking up the slices into pieces and essentially warming it thoroughly. By this time, the noodles were done. I drizzled some sesame oil over the noodles in the colander, then tossed them into the skillet with the salmon and added the veggies back in. I sprinkled toasted sesame seeds over it and stirred it all up.

For a quick, healthy, tasty dish–even put together in less than an optimal mind-frame, this came out great! It sure helped to fortify my nerves. It could have used a couple drops of hot sauce or maybe some dill… wish I’d thought to add dill. Maybe a good squeeze of lemon juice.

Links to cold soba recipes I’ve not tried but sound fantastic:

https://thejapanesekitchen.com/chilled-buckwheat-noodles-with-grilled-alaskan-salmon/

https://recipes.anovaculinary.com/recipe/sambal-honey-ginger-salmon-with-cold-soba-noodles

Oooh! And this one has asparagus and spinach! I’ll have to try this one soon!

https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/soba-noodle-salad-with-salmon-and-asparagus