How to make Japanese cold noodles – vegetarian neba-neba soba to beat the heat
- This meat-free version of buckwheat noodles is deliciously slippery rather than slimy
- Add or substitute ingredients as you wish – a vegan option is easily achieved by leaving the egg out
The Japanese have created delicious and refreshing ways to beat the summer heat. One of my favourites is cold noodles, which can be served in a variety of ways. Most people are familiar with soba (buckwheat flour noodles) or somen (noodles made of wheat flour) served with a bowl of ice-cold dipping sauce mixed with minced spring onion and grated wasabi or ginger.
But there’s far more besides: the noodles can be flavoured with sakura (for a pretty pink tinge), yuzu (pale yellow) or green tea, and there are other cold noodle dishes such as hiyashi chuka (cold ramen noodles with ham, imitation crabmeat and lots of vegetables).
One of my favourite cold noodle dishes is a vegetarian version I first tasted at a soba restaurant in Hong Kong. It might not sound appetising, because it has ingredients that many people avoid – natto (fermented soybeans), grated mountain yam (yamaimo or nagaimo), okra and onsen egg, all of which have a slimy texture that the Japanese describe as neba-neba – but the combination is delicious. When mixed with soba noodles, these ingredients give the dish a pleasantly slippery texture.
Natto is a healthy, protein-rich ingredient sold in small packs in the refrigerated section of supermarkets. To increase the sticky character, stir the natto with chopsticks until you can see long strands when you lift the soybeans.
Soba noodles often come portioned into small bundles convenient for cooking. One bundle – about 90 grams – should be enough for one person, but if you have a large appetite, you might want three bundles for two people.