Meatless Mondays: Light Soba Noodles

Soba noodles have been a real favorite around here recently.  When I’m not in the mood for a dish as substantial as soba noodles with peanut sauce and shrimp, I like something lighter.  This fresh-flavored dish uses veggies to bulk up the whole-grain soba noodles, so you get a satisfying serving size while keeping your caloric intake reasonable.

This dish takes less than 20 minutes to put together (maybe 15, depending on how fast your water boils!).  It's vegan.  If you would like, you can pan-fry or broil some tofu for extra protein. Or, if it's not a meatless Monday in your house, shrimp might be really nice too.

Light Soba Noodles with Veggies

You can customize the veggies in this dish however you like – snow peas would be delicious here.  

Yield: 2 servings

INGREDIENTS

3 oz soba noodles

1 bell pepper, stem and seeds removed, thinly sliced

1 cup shitake mushrooms, sliced

1 green onion, sliced

¼ cup cilantro, chopped

1 lemon, zest and juice

1 tbsp toasted sesame oil

1 tbsp light soy sauce

Sesame seeds

DIRECTIONS

1. Cook soba noodles according to package directions. (If your directions are in Japanese, and you don't read Japanese, it probably says to boil them for 6 minutes.)

2. While noodles cook, heat a skillet over medium heat. Spray with cooking spray, and add peppers and mushrooms.  Cook, stirring occasionally, until mushrooms are cooked and peppers are tender-crisp.

3. Combine lemon zest, juice, sesame oil, and soy sauce in a small bowl and whisk to combine.

4. When the soba noodles are finished cooking, drain and place in a medium mixing bowl. Add the cooked vegetables, green onion and cilantro, and dressing. Toss to combine. Portion into two bowls, and serve sprinkled with sesame seeds. 

I didn't have any leftovers to test my theory on, but I think this would be delicious as cold leftovers too.  If you try it, let me know!  

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Sprouts and Lemon Tahini Dressing

The time had come to clear out some sprouts from our windowsill garden. As I mentioned in that post, I planted some more seeds a few weeks ago, and they have been growing wild ever since! It had gotten to the point that they were starting to choke each other out, fighting for light, so I intervened. With scissors and a salad fork.

This bowl included broccoli sprouts, spinach sprouts, tom thumb lettuce sprouts, swiss chard sprouts, and mezclun micro greens (which the seed packet tells me has 6 kinds of lettuce; I haven't tried to count!).

To top my salad of baby sprouts, I wanted a fresh, spring-like dressing. Something simple, but with big flavor. This lemon-tahini dressing had been lingering in the back of my mind, so I decided to bring it to reality and see if it was as good as I thought it would be. And it was.

The recipe as written produces dressing for a single salad. You could certainly make a larger amount at once if you like.  I don't know how well it would refrigerate, but if you make a larger batch, let me know. I like it as a last minute toss-together dressing to finish off a simple salad.

Creamy Lemon Tahini Dressing
Yield: about 1 1/2 tbsp dressing, for one small salad

INGREDIENTS
Juice of 1/4 lemon, about 1 tbsp
2 tsp tahini
1 tsp honey
1/2 tsp coriander
pinch each salt and fresh ground pepper

DIRECTIONS
Combine ingredients in a small bowl and whisk until creamy and smooth. Enjoy over whatever salad you like.

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Curried Peanut Soup and Quick Naan

We had a great holiday, filled with family time and lots of food! Now that the new year has started, it's back to a more normal routine. The new year also means a re-commitment to healthy habits for a lot of people, or at least a recovery from some serious indulging. For me, that means meals filled with veggies - and soup is a great way to pack the nutrition in.

This soup recipe has long been one of my favorites; it's spicy and nutty and slightly sweet - very satisfying! It comes together, start to finish, in thirty minutes or less.  I've included a quick whole-grain naan recipe that you can make in just a few minutes, because soup always needs bread for dunking.

Curried Peanut Soup
This recipe uses chickpeas to extend the flavor of the peanut butter, giving lots of taste without tons of calories. Adjust the spiciness to your preference - I make it pretty mild.
Yield: 4 servings, about 2 cups each.

INGREDIENTS
1 tsp sesame oil
2 onions, chopped
1 tbsp grated fresh ginger root
1 1/2 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp cumin
1 14 1/2 oz can diced tomatoes, NOT drained
3 cups veggie broth, divided
1 14 1/2 oz can chickpeas, drained and rinsed (about 1 1/2 cups cooked)
3 tbsp natural peanut butter
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper, or to taste

DIRECTIONS
1. Heat a 3 quart or larger pot over medium heat. Add the sesame oil, onion, and ginger, and sautee for about 5 minutes. Let the onion start to brown a little bit - this will bring out its natural sweetness. Stir occassionally.
2. In a blender, combine the chickpeas, peanut butter, and about 1/2 cup of broth. Blend until smooth, adding however much broth is needed to blend.
3. Add the curry powder and cumin to the onion mix, and cook stirring for 1-2 minutes.
4. Add the tomatoes, remaining broth, and chickpea puree to the pot. Increase the heat to bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer about 5 minutes. Stir in cayenne pepper.
5. Remove the soup from the heat and let cool slightly. Using an immersion blender, or working carefully in batches, blend the soup until it is smooth. Serve with bread for dunking.

Quick Whole Grain Naan
Although this recipe isn't traditional, relying on baking powder rather than yeast to give the naan its characteristic bubbles, it produces a soft and tasty bread in only a few minutes. 
Yield: 4 large naan

INGREDIENTS
1 cup whole-grain spelt flour, or white whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp honey
pinch salt
1/2 cup water

DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat a skillet over medium high heat.
2. Combine all ingredients in a bowl, stir until the dough comes together.  If needed, add more water a teaspoon at a time. Knead the dough until you have a smooth ball.
3. Divide the dough into 4 pieces.  On a lightly floured surface, roll out a piece of the dough to 1/8 inch thickness.
4. Spray the pan with a bit of olive oil, then add the rolled dough.  Cook for a minute or so, until bubbles form on the surface and brown spots develop on the underside. Flip, and cook for an additional minute or so. Repeat with remaining dough.
5. Slice the breads into wedges, 6 or so per bread, using a sharp knife. Enjoy!

We started our windowsill garden yesterday - more on that later!