Soba Salad Recipe

A couple of days ago I wrote about a Soba Salad that I made for my sister and brother-in-law in California.  Several people mentioned that they might like to try it.

It was Art's cousin, Renee that shared the recipe with us after she brought it to a family pot luck.  We fell in love with it.  It was a big hit in California too.

Here is the recipe Renee gave me: 

Salad:

1 package buckwheat noodles

(yama imo soba 8.75 oz.), eg., Ishiguro brand

½ pound ocean salad (seaweed)

½ Maui onion or sweet onion, thinly sliced

½ pound imitation crab, shredded

1 package baby spinach leaves (6 oz.) or 1 bunch spinach

or watercress 

1 tomato, thinly sliced

Break soba noodles in half before cooking.  Cook soba as directed on package.  Drain well.  Place soba on large platter or in 9 X 5 X 13 pan.  Top with ocean salad, sliced onions, imitation crab, spinach, and tomatoes in that order.

Dressing:

½ cup sugar

½ to 1 teaspoon black pepper

2 teaspoons salt

1/3  cup Japanese vinegar

½ cup or less vegetable oil

1 Tablespoon sesame oil

2 to 3 teaspoons lemon juice (about ½ lemon)

Mix well until sugar is dissolved.  It will dissolve better if you leave it in room temperature for a while before refrigerating it.  Pour over salad before serving.

I don't usually add the onions, just because we're not great fans of raw onions.  I also put the full teaspoon of black pepper for the kick.  The California Meyer lemons were too sweet for this recipe.  In this case, our more sour Hawaii lemons work better.

I don't layer much except to put the imitation crab and tomatoes at the top.  I usually add green or red leaf lettuce to the mix just because I always like to put a lot of variety in my salads not to mention red peppers and maybe cucumbers.

If you'd rather not make the dressing yourself (which you need to be careful how much you put on the salad because it's quite strong) I found that these two dressings could work well too.

Our daughter, Tiffany gets the Hendrickson's Dressing at the Jewel store in Illinois.  We buy the Feast from the East Sesame Dressing at Costco in Hawaii.

I love getting these little recipe gems at pot lucks.  Thanks, Renee!