Japanese Crunchy Veg Noodles with Tofu Recipe
This tofu is packed full of flavour and tastes amazing with the Japanese-style noodles. I like to leave the veggies raw because I love the crunch and freshness, but if you prefer your vegetables cooked, then simply replace the radishes with red pepper and steam all the veg for a couple of minutes before tossing them through the noodles. A note from Eatopic: The really good soba noodles are made with 100 per cent buckwheat and are gluten-free. Some are a mix of buckwheat and regular wheat. You could replace the soba noodles with brown rice noodles or wholewheat noodles, just be sure each portion of noodles is no more than 280 calories.
Ingredients
- #For the noodles#
- 150g soba noodles (also called buckwheat noodles)
- 1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon mirin (Japanese rice wine)
- 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
- 150g radishes, sliced
- 100g sugar snap peas or mangetout, trimmed
- 1 medium courgette, halved lengthways and thinly sliced on the diagonal
- #For the Tofu#
- 4 cm piece ginger, peeled and finely grated
- 1 fat clove garlic, finely chopped
- 1/2 red chilli, seeds removed, finely chopped
- 2 teaspoons dark soy sauce
- 100% mild and light olive oil spray
- 200g firm tofu, cut into 1cm slices
- About 10 fresh mint leaves
Instructions
- Bring a large pan of water to the boil, add the soba noodles and cook for 5 minutes until just tender but not mushy (or as per packet instructions) – don’t overcook or they will break up. Use a large pan as the water can rise up as the noodles cook.
- Drain and rinse the noodles. Return to the pan and toss through the remaining noodle ingredients. Set aside.
- In a small bowl mix together the ginger, garlic, red chilli and soy sauce.
- pray a non-stick pan with the olive oil and place over a medium-high heat. Dab the tofu dry with kitchen towel then place in the pan. Fry for 2-3 minutes on each side, until the slices have a golden-brown crust.
- Transfer to warm serving plates and spoon the ginger-garlic soy sauce over the tofu. Scatter with torn fresh mint leaves and serve with the noodles alongside.