Veggie Soba Salad

Always looking to expand our weekday dinner repertoire, I recently started experimenting with soba noodles and had success. I wasn't sure how they'd come out but Edie loved them, especially because she got to "play" with her food a bit and pull them out of her bowl. The veggies that I put inside were colorful and kiddo friendly, including local organic carrots as well as some edamame. You can definitely substitute with other things such as various proteins like chicken, tofu or even fish. Even though I made a full bowl of this stuff, the dish went down so easy that there were zero leftovers. (A good mental note for myself to make double next time around).

Veggie Soba Salad (serves 3)
Prep time 25 mins. Cook time 15 mins.

Ingredients:
1/2 lb of frozen edamame
8 oz of soba noodles (I used Hakubaku brand)
1/8 cup of rice wine vinegar
1 1/2 tbsp of miso paste
1 tsp of ground ginger
1 tsp of honey
1/8 cup of sesame oil
1 medium cucumber, grated
2 medium carrots, peeled into ribbons
Small bunch of cilantro, chopped

Directions: (as adapted from Live Naturally magazine)
Bring 1 cup of water to boil and then add the edamame. Bring to a boil and then turn down to low and simmer for 2-3 minutes. Drain the edamame and transfer to a bowl.

Bring water to a boil again and add the soba noodles. Cook according to directions on the packaging. Rinse with cold water and then combine with the edamame.

In a small bowl, combine the vinegar, miso, ginger and honey. Incorporate well and then add the sesame oil.

Add dressing to noodles and edamame, and then add the cucumber, carrots and cilantro. Toss to combine. You can refrigerate for an hour before serving or if you can't wait, serve immediately.

Kid wins:

• Pulling noodles - It was so much fun to pull the noodles with my fingers and then suck them up. I didn't want to use my fork at all!
• Carrots - The colorful carrots were yummy and it was easy to eat them with my fingers.
• Dinner in a bowl - It was fun to eat the noodles out of my cereal bowl and I got to take them out on the porch and eat outside.

Grown-up wins:

• Healthy - This dish is totally healthy and vegan. You can easily add more protein but you almost don't even need it.
• Colorful - I loved looking at the colorful produce inside, which tasted as good as it looked.
• Flavorful dressing - The miso really added something authentic to this dish and the ginger gave it that fresh zingy quality.