Posted on September 18, 2018 by Emily Forbes

A few weeks ago I spent an afternoon on a cooking class. Not that I’m a bad cook but I’m all up for new experiences.  I took the opportunity to learn a few knife skills and practice a dish I have never made before. Vegetable Yaki Soba was on the menu. I have never heard of Yaki Soba before but apparently it is many peoples’ favourite dish at Wagamamas. Vegetable Yaki Soba is classic a Japanese stir-fry dish made with buckwheat (soba) noodles, sauce, vegetables.

Ingredients:

  • 180g uncooked soba noodles
  • 2 tbs soy sauce (buy from Asian supermarkets for best quality)
  • 1 tbs mirin (sweet rice wine)
  • 1 tsp toasted sesame oil
  • Half a red chilli (remove seeds if you don’t like it hot)
  • 1 garlic clove (crushed)
  • 1 tbs veg oil (for frying)
  • Piece of ginger (about 1 inch)
  • Small red onion (sliced)
  • Quarter of savoy cabbage (sliced)
  • Small carrot (julienne)
  • 1-2 spring onions
  • 1 tbs Sesame seeds
  • 10g coriander (finely chopped)
  • 10g basil (chiffonade-shredded; it was a cooking class remember)
  • Lime (optional.  Segmented; this was used to practice segmenting technique so not essential in recipe but quite nice)
  • 1 tomato (concasse; skinned, seeded and chopped)

Method:

  • As stir-fry is a quick dish to cook, it is best to have all ingredients ready to go before starting. Try to chop all vegetables the same size to ensure even cooking. Also try to cut then fine and thin rather than bulky so that they cook quickly.
  • In a small bowl, combine soy sauce, mirin, chilli, garlic and sesame oil.
  • Bring a large pan of water to the boil and cook the noodles for 2 minutes. Drain and rinse quickly in cold water so that the noodles don’t stick together.
  • In a large pan/wok, heat the oil over a medium-high heat. Saute the onions until translucent (about 5 min). Add the ginger and fry for a couple more minutes.
  • Add the cabbage and carrot to the pan and cook for another 3-5 minutes.
  • The cooked noodles will be added next and stirred through to heat.
  • The sauce will be the last thing to go into the pan along with the herbs, just for a minute or 2 to heat.
  • Serve and garnish with spring onions, tomato, lime and sesame seeds. (2-3 servings)

For the carnivores out there, you can stir fry some meat to add to this Vegetable Yaki Soba dish. Traditionally pork would be the meat of choice but I think prawns would work well too. Here’s another prawn stir-fry recipe if you need another quick meal.

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