Soba, Mangetout & Tarragon Salad With Carrot-Miso Dressing
Soba, Mangetout & Tarragon Salad With Carrot-Miso Dressing

Soba, Mangetout & Tarragon Salad With Carrot-Miso Dressing

Tarragon is not traditionally used in Japanese cooking, but its vibrant, fennel-y flavour works well in many Japanese preparations. If you can get young tarragon with tender stems, it makes exceptional tempura, for example. It also works well with soba, providing an uplifting aroma that works well with the nuttiness of buckwheat.
Image: LAURA EDWARDS

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Serves
2
Total Time
30 Minutes
Ingredients
For The Dressing
½ medium carrot, peeled & roughly chopped
3mm slice of fresh ginger root, peeled
2 tbsp of white miso
2 tbsp of water
2 tbsp of mirin
2 tbsp of vinegar
2 tbsp of olive oil
For The Salad
2 portions of dried soba noodles
100g of mangetout
1 tsp of sesame oil
A few sprigs of tarragon, leaves picked
A few pinches of sesame seeds
Method
Step 1

To make the dressing, combine all the ingredients in a blender and purée until as smooth as possible.

Step 2

Fill a large saucepan with water and bring to the boil. Cook the soba according to the package instructions – usually this involves a quick boil followed by simmering at a lower temperature, generally anywhere from 3-8 minutes in total.

Step 3

When there’s 1 minute left on the soba, add the mangetout to the pan and cook for a final minute. Drain in a sieve and rinse thoroughly under cold water to remove excess starch, then drain very well and toss with the sesame oil.

Step 4

To serve, spoon some dressing on top of the noodles and garnish with the tarragon leaves and sesame. If you keep the dressing separate, this will last for three days in the refrigerator.

JapanEasy Bowls & Bento by Tim Anderson (Hardie Grant, £25), Photography © Laura Edwards

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