Soba Noodle Salad with Yuzu Dressing is a cooling Japanese salad with fresh spring snap peas, radishes and greens with a yuzu ginger soy dressing. Perfect springtime recipe or dish to pass.
Fun Fact: Did you know that it is customary in Japanese culture to serve the pasta water the soba noodles were boiled in (Sobayu) to drink for good health? Sobayu is enjoyed after eating the Soba noodles.
Living in Japan, we had the exciting opportunity to try new delicacies and learn how to make delicious authentic Japanese Cuisine dishes.
Recipe Perks
You are just going to love the slurpability of cold buckwheat (soba) noodles combined with the crunch of the vegetables. Every bite, you get something a little different with the creaminess of the hard-boiled eggs, silky soba noodles and crunch of the spring radishes, greens and snap peas.
However, the yuzu ginger dressing on this soba noodle salad is going to make you smile. Seriously delicious! We could just do shots of this dressing. (Don’t worry if you do not have yuzu as lemon zest in this dressing is delicious too)
As it is not a mayonnaise based dressing, like the one used in our Asian Crab Salad, it's the perfect for a dish to pass to all of your spring- summer BBQ functions. Be sure to check out our other Salad Recipe Categories for more summer salad dishes to pass.
Yuzu Ginger Soy Dressing
Yuzu Ginger Soy Dressing is an addictive salad dressing made with soy sauce (or tamari sauce), yuzu paste (or lemon zest), grated ginger, honey, rice wine vinegar and sesame oil. Absolutely lip smacking delicious.
You may want to double your recipe for the dressing as it also makes a fabulous marinade for chicken, shrimp and fish. We are all about cook once and eat twice kind of meals. How about you?
What the heck is a YUZU?
Have you ever tried yuzu? Yuzu is a member of the citrus family and is a fruit. It can be generally found in Japan, Korea, China and other Asian Countries. It's an odd looking fruit as it has bumps, is yellow and has loads more seeds compared to a lemon.
The closest relative to a yuzu is a lemon. However, it is also more sour, pungent and floral which makes it a fantastic as a dressing, marinade, in cocktails just to name a few.
We used Yuzu paste by S & B and it is 100% yuzu with salt to preserve. This type of paste can be difficult to find so want to let you know that this recipe is just as delicious with plain normal lemon zest replacement in a 1:1 ratio.
Consequently, Yuzu paste is different than Yuzu Kosho which is a combination of yuzu citrus and chili peppers. We found our S & B yuzu paste at a Japanese grocery store. You can also find it online.
What can you substitute YUZU with?
You can use grated lemon zest in a 1:1 ratio exchange with 100% yuzu paste. In addition, you can swap out the soy sauce and yuzu paste in the recipe with just 6 tablespoons of ponzu sauce. Ponzu sauce is made by simmering mirin, rice vinegar, bonito flakes, and seaweed. Once this liquid is then cooled the juice of a yuzu or lemon is added to give it that fabulous punch of flavor. Of course, ponzu sauce is not gluten-free.
Soba Noodles
It can be very difficult to find traditional soba noodles made out of 100% buckwheat noodles, even in Japan. Sometimes, Soba noodles are made from buckwheat flour and wheat flour. If you have celiac disease, you need to really check it out to make sure they are 100% buckwheat.
Even though buckwheat has the word wheat in the title, it is not actually a grain at all. Buckwheat noodles are completely addictive aldente, silky and have lots of vitamins, minerals and protein compared to some your noodle counterparts. If you like soba, be sure to try our Matcha Soba Salad with Norimaki Mochi.
Veggies
We love visiting the Farmer’s Market and picking out the fresh vegetables for our Soba Noodle Salad with Yuzu Dressing. Radishes and snap peas and mixed fresh greens looked gorgeous we added this to add some crunch to the mix. However, edamame, thinly julienned carrots, or any veggies you have in your crisper would be a lovely addition.
You might really like the balance of adding in as many mixed greens as you do soba noodles. A 50-50 addition works for us.
In addition, we added a few sliced hard-boiled eggs to give the dish a completed feel. You could also add grilled tofu, grilled shrimp, salmon or whatever your little heart desires.
Step by Step: How to Make
1) Boil your Japanese soba in plenty of salted water.
2) You must rinse your soba noodles with cold water. Very important step.
3) Make your Yuzu ginger dressing and prepare your additions
4) Toss
5) Enjoy
Popular Japanese Recipes
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Soba Noodle Salad with Yuzu Dressing
Ingredients
Yuzu ginger dressing
- 6 tablespoons soy sauce
(or tamari) - 2 tablespoons sesame oil
- 2.5 tablespoons honey
(or maple syrup for vegan option) - 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
- 2 teaspoons yuzu paste
(or 2 teaspoons lemon zest) - 1 teaspoon ginger freshly grated or ½ teaspoon dry dround ginger
Soba Noodle Salad
- 7.5 ounces soba noodles
or about 3 bundles of soba noodles - 1 tablespoon Salt
to boil soba noodles (1 tablespoon of salt for 16 cups/ 4 quarts water) - 1 cup snap peas
- ¾ cup radishes
sliced - ¼ cup green onions
sliced - 2 cups leafy greens
(spinach. Kale chard, etc.) - 2 tablespoons white sesame seeds
toasted - 2 eggs
optional - ½ cup Edamame cooked and shelled - optional
Instructions
- Boil soba noodles in salted water according to directions. Our directions are for about 6 minutes for aldente noodles. Do not overcook noodles. Immediately drain the soba noodles and rinse with cool water. Set aside.
- Boil eggs in water for 6 minutes. Remove from pot. Rinse to cool and peel. Slice. Set aside.
- Make Yuzu ginger dressing: In a small bowl mix together soy sauce, sesame oil, honey, rice wine vinegar, yuzu paste (or lemon zest) and freshly grated ginger and mix. Set aside.
- Toss your salad together: In a very large salad bowl add your cooked, rinse and cooled soba noodles, snap peas, radishes, green onions, leafy greens, toasted sesame seeds and yuzu ginger salad dressing. Toss well.
- Garnish with hard boiled eggs and edamame, if desired, and enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
Eha says
Eat noodles at least three times a week . . . and they are most likely to be soba noodles of which we have a big choice here in Australia. As you know I do not keep any diets whatsoever but love soba because of taste and texture. Love your dressing. Have never quite taken to edamame ? but will prepare this with peapods, bok choi, spring onions and radishes I do not use nearly often enough . . . lovely !
HWC Magazine says
Thank you Eha! We crave soba noodles in the spring warmer weather. In Japan, we enjoyed cold soba with the tsuyu sauce and hot green tea for a very special spring treat. In winter they give you the hot broth water from the cooked hot soba noodles to drink as it is supposed to be good for you. Have you ever tried this? Stay well and take care
Tamara Andersen says
This noodle recipe looks so appealing Bobbi! We're hitting the hundreds daily here in south Texas, and hot dishes don't hold much appeal right now. Soba is probably my favorite noodle for noodle dishes, and I always have them on hand. All I need is a trip to our farmers market! Pinning!
HWC Magazine says
Thanks so much Tamara. We totally understand how you feel. Cool soba with fresh crispy vegetables is really refreshing on these hot and steamy day. Happy slurping!