Tag Archives: sobal noodle

UPDATE: The potluck is over, but the voting for faves just started! Below find my entry in the Virtual Vegan Potluck then click on over to cast your vote for Veg Bon Vivant for salad winner!

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I’m part of a GLOBAL plant-based potluck today. Doesn’t that sound super impressive? Over 170 of my virtual vegan friends have committed to participation in Virtual Vegan Potluck, a twice-a-year, orderly, and yummy way to expose their blog followers to new recipes and new vegan blogs. I am so excited about the blogroll itself I can hardly stand it. New reading! My “dish to pass” is a salad. A tried and true salad that never has leftovers and leaves everyone shocked that they just ate Thai food. Hey, eat more veggies while you are at it.

I relish all of the different flavor combinations that comprise regional foods and on occasion I like to make up my own recipes from the most awesome parts of other recipes.  I love peanut sauce in Thai restaurants; however it is not good for you. At. All. I modified a recipe I found online cutting out the non-veg ingredients, pinched a little of the fat (bye-bye oil) and yet maintained a “dressing” consistency suitable for a salad instead of satay duty. Paired with a few of my fave salad ingredients including the beloved soba noodle, I dropped in a spicy protein too to give you a delightfully filling and portable salad that could hold its own at a REAL potluck. Hello summer!

Peanut Dressing:

• 3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1/4 cup (brown) rice vinegar
• 1 T tamari or soy sauce
• 1 tsp to 1 T chopped, ground, or pre-chopped ginger (test along the way)
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed and chopped
• drizzle of toasted sesame oil (keep it to less than a tsp)
• big pinch of crushed red pepper flakes or 1 tsp-1T of hot sauce, your choice
• 1/4-1/2 cup hot water

Salad:

• 1 package soba noodles prepared according to package instructions
• 2 carrots, peeled, grated
• 4 radishes, chopped
• 1 head napa cabbage, shredded
• 1/4 C crushed peanuts or cashews, toasted
• a handful of bean spouts per salad

• 1 package extra firm tofu, drained, sliced in half (thickness wise) and pressed (after pressing 20-30 minutes, cut into pieces about the size of a pinky finger-sorry, that’s kinda gross!)
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 C soy sauce
• 2 inches ginger, peeled and grated
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1 pinch red pepper flakes

Marinate tofu in mixture of the ingredients above for 30 minutes to overnight. Bake tofu on a foil lined, lightly greased, rimed baking sheet at 375 or grilled until firm in texture, turning every 5-10 minutes.  Serve with the salad.