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.