LUNCH! Week 4: Soba Noodles + Salmon + Miso

Let’s do LUNCH!. With chapters built around three main ingredients, the LUNCH! cookbook demonstrates how to make 10 weeks of exciting lunches (50 recipes in all) with fresh ingredients and healthy variety.

Monday Soba Noodle Salad with Miso Salmon
Tuesday Black Rice Bowl with Miso Salmon and Spinach
Wednesday Miso Soba Noodle Soup
Thursday Spinach Salad with Sugar Snap Peas and Soy Sauce Eggs
Friday Fried Black Rice

This week is all about miso and soy, some of the most delicious ingredients on the planet. Miso has many more applications than just the miso soup you get with your sushi. This week, you’ll be blitzing this flavorful paste into a dressing, rubbing it on salmon, and using it as a base for a noodle soup bowl packed with veggies and soba noodles. If you buy good quality, ideally organic, miso, it will provide you with probiotics and vitamin K. Novice miso shoppers should know that the light shades (white and yellow) are aged less and are therefore milder, best for soups and dressing, while the darker shades (red) have a stronger flavor and are best used in braises and stews. And if you’ve ever eaten a bowl of ramen noodles, you’ve probably had an egg similar to the Soy Sauce Jammy Eggs in this chapter. The eggs are cooked for just 6½ minutes before they take a plunge in a soy sauce bath, which creates an egg that is greater than the sum of its parts and so satisfying. Make a few extra for snacks during the week!

Grocery List

Pantry

½ cup plus 1 tablespoon white or yellow miso paste
½ cup soy sauce
Grapeseed oil
3 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
3 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
9 ounces buckwheat soba noodles
1½ cups black rice
¼ cup sesame seeds
2 tablespoons hemp seeds
½ cup roasted salted cashews
A pinch of red chili flakes (optional)
Chili oil (optional)

Produce

1 (3-inch) piece fresh ginger
3 garlic cloves
1 lemon
3 carrots
2 Persian cucumbers
1 (5-ounce) container baby spinach
1 bunch scallions
½ pound sugar snap peas
½ pound shiitake mushrooms
1 cup any microgreens or sprouts

Seafood

1 (½-pound) salmon fillet

Dairy

4 eggs