Use your noodle

Whether it’s egg, rice or soba, adding noodles to your meal is a bit of a no-brainer. Filling and comforting, they’re slurpingly delicious on a winter’s eve

Marinated salmon on soba noodles

Serves 4 ½ cup runny honey

¼ cup tamari

2 Tbsp grated fresh ginger

2 Tbsp mirin

1 cup water

4 x 150g pieces salmon

2 heads bok choy

1 cup frozen edamame

300g soba noodles, cooked to

packet instructions

1 Tbsp dried seaweed bits, optional 1 Tbsp chopped chives, optional 1 Preheat an oven to 180C.

2 Combine the honey, tamari, ginger, mirin and water in a bowl. Place the salmon in a flattish dish and pour over the honey mixture. Let it marinate for at least 20 minutes, turning once. Remove salmon and reserve marinade. 3 Shake excess marinade off the salmon and bake the salmon for 15 minutes or till done to your liking, depending on the thickness. 4 While the salmon cooks, heat the marinade in a pot, adding another cup of water and cook the bok choy and edamame in it.

5 To serve, place some noodles in a bowl, top with the greens and salmon. Spoon over the liquid. Garnish with seaweed and chopped chives. Recipe / Angela Casley. Photos / Babiche Martens

Serves 6

4cm ginger, peeled, very thinly sliced 2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

75ml Japanese soy sauce

2 Tbsp mirin

300g carrots, peeled and thinly sliced 350g button mushrooms, halved 425g straw mushrooms, 1 can, drained 325g egg noodles

1 Tbsp sesame oil

150g green beans, stalk ends cut off,

beans sliced 2cm

2 Tbsp cornflour, dissolved in 3 Tbsp cold

water

450g Japanese firm silken tofu, broken

into bite-sized pieces

50g baby spinach, placed in a heatproof bowl, covered with boiling water, drained, cooled under cold water, squeezed dry, lumps teased apart

1 jar chilli bean sauce, for serving

1 Put 1 litre of water into a wide, deep frying pan and add the ginger, garlic, soy sauce, mirin, carrots, and the button and straw mushrooms.

2 Bring to the boil and simmer 10 minutes

until the carrots are tender. Meanwhile, bring a large saucepan of water to the boil and add the noodles.

3 Boil until al dente or tender to the bite, drain, place in a heatproof bowl, add the sesame oil and toss. Cover and reserve.

4 Add the beans to the carrot mixture and

simmer for 1 minute.

5 Stir in the cornflour mixture to lightly

thicken the mix.

6 Add the tofu and spinach leaves, mix carefully but well and simmer 2-3 minutes. Taste and season with salt.

7 Serve the tofu on the warm noodles with

chilli bean sauce on the side. Recipe / Ray McVinnie. Photos / Tamara West