What are your criteria for an easy dinner?

Mine:
1. As few ingredients as possible

2. good for adults too

3. requires no specialty store

My friend, Olivia, put me onto this! Why didn’t I think of it??

All you need:

3-4 TBSP miso paste
roasted seaweed, cut or torn
16oz firm tofu, pressed & cut into small cubes
8 oz soba noodles
OPTIONAL:
green onions, sliced
shiitake mushrooms
baby spinach
crushed red pepper

Knowing how those soba noodles like to be babied, I looked at a few recipes to check on the order of things. Those of you who have cooked soba noodles know they have to characteristics that make them distinct from, like, spaghetti.

1. They expand QUITE a lot during cooking.

and

2. After cooking, they need to rinsed with cold water to avoid unsightly CLUMPING.

My advice: follow the package directions to a T. (Tee or T? I dunno!)

Here’s what I did after reading several recipes:

1. Press tofu. Also: I think FIRM tofu would be best for soup. I had extra firm so I used that.

2. Start your water for the soba. Use a medium or large saucepan since the soba will expand. Follow package instructions. I know I already suggested this. I can’t stress it enough because of my own failure to follow package instructions.

3. While that’s boiling, cut the seaweed into strips of whatever size you’d like! I used kitchen scissors.

I cut some of the strips into thirds afterwards. By the way, what’s Monkey Binky doing on the floor?

4. Drain your noodles, rinse & set aside. Do NOT skip the rinsing or you’ll have a giant clump o noodle.

5. Set 4 c of water to boil. This will be for your broth. In a small bowl, whisk together 3 or 4 TBSP miso paste with some of the hot broth water. Then add that mixture to your broth water & stir to combine. This supposedly helps avoid clumping but you can try skipping this step & just add the miso paste directly to the boiling water if you’re feeling adventurous (i.e. short on time.)

Add the seaweed & tofu to the broth and let it sit for a few minutes.

Ready to serve!

Drop some noodles in your bowl:

Ladle some broth over the noodles.

YUM!

DISCLOSURE: My broth isn’t as purdy as it could be because I was trying to save on dishes/energy use. I decided to reserve 4 cups of the noodle water to use for the broth. (Instead of tossing perfectly good hot water & starting over again.) The results tasted excellent but looked sort of murky.

Next time I’ll add shitake mushrooms & green onions.

Btw: both kids showed their usual level of disinterest in it the first night but I now realize they are not big dinner eaters. They eat most of their food during the daytime. The next day they  scarfed down 2 bowls each! Which tells you the leftovers are great too…

Adapted from recipes from: Olivia Kelly & Heidi Swanson