Things I Eat: Sesame Peanut Soba Noodles

Soba noodle experiment! I thought I could be all cool like those people who post delicious looking soba noodle dishes on the Internet with things like “sweet chili peanut soba noodles” and whatever. Look at how artful and delicious these dishes look!

Anytime a thought begins with “I could be cool if. . .” I should just stop.

But do I? No.

I thought I would do a sweet peanut sesame things with bell peppers. Yeah!

Soba Noodles
Soba noodles are noodles made from buckwheat and sometimes buckwheat and wheat - the word "soba" is Japanese for buckwheat. They are more efficient and probably correct in their naming of things. They are nutty and often used in Asian dishes. Buckwheat is not actually wheat - it's a fruit - so it's gluten free and, well, vegan and all that. While I love my rice noodles, I like to keep my diet diverse as possible.

As a warning, soba noodles can be expensive and if you are avoiding wheat, make sure to check to make sure they don't have wheat flour. Just look for what brand is more expensive because buckwheat flour is hard to make into noodles. Paying for labor - probably worth it.

If you never had buckwheat – by the way. It does have a distinctive taste. It’s very healthy but it’s a very unique taste. To me, it reminds me of pancakes. To other people, it reminds them of ear wax infections. I’m just saying. It’s like sushi or coffee – it can be an acquired taste. I suggest trying a mix of buckwheat and wheat your first time around – the color is less horrifying and the taste is more mild. Like coffee, sushi and other items, it can be an acquired taste.

What You Need

• Soba Noodles: I got the 100% buckwheat type made by Eden Foods
• 1 red pepper: I like crunch
• 1 yellow pepper: The lighter the pepper is sweeter
• 2 heaping tablespoons honey-peanut butter: I got this from Whole Foods, it's made fresh there so no dairy. I later remembers I do react to peanut, but...maybe not that much?
• Scallion: Green onions, spring onions - whatever you call it.
• Onions: My go-to is always the sweet yellow
• Sesame oil: Yum!
• Garlic oil: Double yum!
• Olive oil: For cooking

I was going to put some jicama in it, but, then I realized I didn't have room in my skillet. And, really. . .I prefer make fries out of it.

What You Do
Make the noodles per the package. They tend to cook faster than Italian noodles. Mine took 8 minutes after the water was boiling.

Chop up your veggies. I liked mine in strips. I’m a fan of stripes. I’m sure you could have cubed or done whatever. Then I sautéed the mess in my pan with some olive oil until they were tender – sometimes I do this by turning on a low heat and covering it.

In a separate bowl, I added two heaping tablespoons of my honey-peanut butter, about 1 tablespoon sesame oil and a drizzle of garlic oil. I also added a little water for mixing purposes. Feel free to taste your mixture to see if you like it and add more of whatever you want.

I added the peanut butter mixture while the pan was on low heat and mixed it in there just to warm it up and coat everything. I even threw in some scallions – when they have been cooked a little, they are a little more forgiving.

When it’s all done – you mix it together. I won’t lie, it is super hard to make this look good. But it did taste good. The noodles are that grayish color and the peppers look a little like tentacles.

It was good – just. . .sort of creepy looking no matter what I did. Below, I mixed it all up really good.

Here is the soba noodles on top of the peppers -

Creepy.