Have you ever had a craving for a refreshing meal, which would instantly cool you down on a sultry day?
This is a make-ahead noodle salad dish (yes, great as a brunch over the weekend). You can make this salad ahead of time and refrigerate it for at least an hour up to overnight to fully develop its flavor. Before serving, all you have to do is boiling eggs and noodle. How easy is that?
Ingredients for 2 servings Seasoning sauce 3 tsp Coarse red pepper powder. (It is important to use coarsely ground red pepper for Korean flavor. Please see the picture below for an example. You can keep it in the refrigerator for a long time.)
2 tsp fermented soy sauce. (My favorite is Sempio naturally brewed soy sauce (see its picture below). Fermented soy sauce has layers of deep flavors that chemically produced soy sauce (most soy sauce belong to this category) does not have. Please make sure to read the label before purchasing a bottle of soy sauce. Because it is very salty, you can keep it on the shelf.)
1 tsp salt 1/2 tsp chopped garlic 1/4 tsp ginger powder 1 tsp sesame oil Salad Half an apple (chopped) Half a seedless English cucumber (thinly sliced) A quarter of a red bell pepper (sliced into thin strips) 2 stalks of celery (finely chopped) A quarter of a carrot (julienned) Things to be cooked right before serving 2 soft boiled eggs 2 servings of buckwheat noodle (The darker the better; it indicates a high buckwheat content of the noodle. My favorite is the Sukina buckwheat noodle shown below. You can buy it much cheaper at an Asian grocery store than on Amazon.)
Instruction How to make salad Add all the seasoning ingredients to a mixing bowl and mix them well. Chop all the other salad materials, add them to the mixing bowl and combine them with the seasoning mixture. The salad will look dry at first. But water will come out of vegetables to thin out the seasoning sauce.
On the day of serving First, boil eggs for 7 minutes in a simmering water, take them out, and keep them in cold water for easy peeling. In the same pot, cook your buckwheat noodle according to the instruction on the package (mine takes 6 minutes of boiling). Rinse, drain, and add the cooked noodle to the salad mixture. Season the noodle salad with salt to your taste if necessary. Peel and slice the soft-boiled eggs into halves. Place them in the center of the noodle salad.
Notes
1. If apples are not in season, you can use honey instead.
2. If you are a vegetarian, you can omit eggs. This noodle salad will be just as delicious without them.
3. Stir-fried zucchini also goes very well with this salad.
4. If you want a simpler version of this recipe, you can skip bell peppers, carrots, and celeries. Just season the cooked noodles with 2 tsp of soy sauce and mix them with the other ingredients and salt to your taste. You can also add some Kimchi and its broth to this salad. By mixing and matching different ingredients, you can create an endless variety of this noodle salad. The same principle also applies to one-pot bibimbap and Korean sweet potato noodle dish "잡채". Enjoy this refreshing noodle salad and let me know if you have tried any other ingredients that go well with this noodle.
