It's easy for cold noodle dishes such as sōmen to become monotonous let alone nutritionally unbalanced — you’re basically eating a lot of starch with a salty sauce like mentsuyu. These days, I’m trying more one-dish cold noodle recipes that contain vegetables, proteins and the like.
This is one such recipe with an Italian twist featuring plenty of olives, olive oil and tomatoes.
This unorthodox method of leaving the noodles to steep in hot water with the pot lid on was first popularized on YouTube. It really does result in noodles that stay firm and don’t stick together. The rinsing and chilling parts are also critical to ensure that the noodles are the right texture. If you prefer it very cold, you might want to refrigerate the tomato-olive mix and soup (directions below) in advance.
Serves 2
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 10 minutes, plus chilling time
Ingredients:
- 200 grams dried sōmen noodles (2 bundles)
- 4 medium tomatoes
- 5 black olives
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 80 grams tuna
- Fresh basil leaves
- 4 teaspoons chicken soup stock cubes
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 200 milliliters water
1. Bring a pot of water to a boil. Dunk the tomatoes in the boiling water for 30 seconds, then take them out. The same water can be used to cook the noodles, so save it for later.
2. Peel the tomato skins off and cut them in half to remove the seeds, then finely dice them.
3. Pit the olives and slice them thinly. Combine the tomatoes, olives, olive oil and salt in a bowl and mix well, then refrigerate.
4. Take one cup of the hot water from earlier and mix it with the chicken soup stock cubes and lemon juice. Once combined, refrigerate.
5. Bring the water you dunked the tomatoes in to a boil again, then splay the sōmen noodles into the water. Stir to separate the noodles. Turn off the heat and put a lid on the pot, then leave it for at least five minutes.
6. Drain the noodles into a colander. Fill the pot with cold water from the tap and rinse the noodles several times, changing the water until you can feel no starchiness on the surface of the noodles.
7. Drain the noodles again, then dunk them, colander and all, into a bowl of ice water until the noodles chill completely.
8. Finely shred the basil leaves and drain the canned tuna.
9. Drain the noodles for a final time and arrange into two bowls. Ladle the soup onto the noodles, then add the tomato-olive mix, tuna and shredded basil leaves. Mix well before eating.
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