Smashed cucumber noodle salad
- Prepare
- less than 30 mins
- Cook
- less than 10 mins
- Serve
- Serves 1 as a main (or 2 as a side)
This noodle salad has all of the delicious flavour profiles of smashed cucumbers, but the cucumbers don't actually need smashing (though don't let us stop you!).
Each serving provides 690 kcal, 19.9g protein, 73.1g carbohydrate (of which 12.7g sugars), 33.5g fat (of which 4.5g saturates), 3g fibre and 3.82g salt.
By Justin Tsang
Ingredients
For the dressing
- 1 tsp white miso paste (see recipe tips)
- 1 tbsp crispy chilli oil
- 1 tbsp light soy sauce
- ½ tbsp sesame oil
- 1 tsp granulated sugar
- 1 tbsp rice vinegar or Chinese black vinegar
- ½ tsp MSG (optional)
- 1 tbsp shop-bought fried garlic flakes (optional)
- 1 small garlic clove, grated
- 15g/½oz fresh root ginger, peeled and grated
- ½ lime, juice only
For the salad
- 90g/3¼oz dried soba noodles
- 3 mini cucumbers or 1 medium cucumber, sliced into rounds
- handful fresh coriander, roughly chopped
- handful fresh chives, thinly sliced, plus handful thinly sliced fresh chives, to garnish
- 1 tbsp sesame seeds, to garnish
Method
To make the dressing, whisk all of the ingredients for the dressing in a large bowl until combined.
To make the salad, bring a saucepan of water to the boil and cook the noodles according to packet instructions. Carefully transfer the noodles to a bowl of cold water and submerge to stop the cooking process. Drain and transfer to the bowl of dressing.
Add the remaining salad ingredients to the bowl and toss until everything is fully coated with the dressing.
Transfer to a plate, garnish with the sesame seeds and chives and serve.
Recipe tips
Miso paste is available in many different types (white, red, brown etc). White has the mildest flavour and is the most common (it's actually a creamy light-brown colour). Some supermarkets sell jars labelled as a generic 'miso paste' which will be white miso and suitable for this recipe.
