summer soba salad (vegan)
Adapted from Simply Reem, via my Pinterest board

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When you really don't want to cook, this is the dinner salad for you.

Having Pinterest boards has been really useful for recipe fishing. I pinned Simply Reem's Soba Noodles Salad as something to try, and it was a great starting point for this dish. I was happy to make this into a meal salad that is vegetarian to boot.

My meat-eating husband has even confirmed that this is company-worthy.

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2 packages of soba, cha-soba (see note below) 
  if you have them
1 cake of firm tofu,
  cubed into bite-sized pieces and drained
Arugula
Shredded carrots
Cilantro, finely chopped

Dressing
4T lime juice
3T shoyu
3T honey
4t Japanese vinegar
3t sesame oil
1/2t of red pepper flakes
Roasted sesame seeds

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Boil water to prep for soba. While this is happening, cube tofu and set it out to drain. Chop cilantro. When the water boils, drop the soba in and cook until al-dente. Drain and cool  down. 

Make dressing.

Toss with arugula and shredded carrots. Add the tofu last and toss lightly so it does not get smushed.

NOTES:
1. Cha-soba is soba (buckwheat) noodles flavored with green tea powder. I used Hakubaku organic soba, which is available at Nijya, Marukai and most Japanese grocery stores. The original recipe uses regular soba noodles. 

2. Even though soba translates to buckwheat noodles, most soba contains wheat flour as well as buckwheat flour, and is therefore, not gluten-free. There are gluten-free 100% buckwheat soba noodles, but I've not found these to be easily available.

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