Combinaison Est-Ouest – Soba au thé vert avec shitake, mange tout, olives et tomates séchées

greenteanoodles10webThe best soba noodle soups I had, were on my trip to Japan. Since then, I have been in love with soba noodles, they’re healthy, full of iron and most of all deliciously flavorful. This kind has green tea, you can slightly taste the green tea flavor but is certainly not overpowering.

In France, we use buckwheat flour to make savory crêpes, or galettes bretonnes. I tried making noodles with buckwheat flour but this particular kind needs to be combined with white flour otherwise when cooking the pasta tends to break, since buckwheat flour doesn’t have much gluten.

I had those green tea soba noddles in the kitchen for quite some time, and was just wondering how I could prepare them, I did not feel like Asian food, so did not want to go the “Asian route”, with ginger, soy sauce, sesame oil, etc…but I did not have the ingredients I was looking for…so after thinking and thinking for about an hour with my head inside the refrigerator and definitely set on NOT using the typical Asian ingredients, I finally decided to mix and match some Asian vegetables with Mediterranean ingredients. Actually the result was quite satisfying and I will surely make those again. These days, I am on my experimenting mode, that’s how I get my adrenaline rush. The rain and muggy weather makes me want to stay inside and experiment. I should have been a chemist…maybe in my next life.

Ingredients for 2

  • 150 g green tea soba noodles
  • 100g snap peas
  • 6 shitake mushrooms
  • 1 baby bok choy
  • 100 g small shrimps
  • 3 garlic cloves, crushed
  • 1 tbs kalamata olives, chopped
  • 1 tbs sundried tomatoes
  • 2 tbs extra virgin olive oil
  • 2 pinches red hot chili powder
  • salt and pepper

Preparation

First, wash and cut all the vegetables, except for the snap peas, you don’t need to cut them. In a medium size pan, heat olive oil, then add garlic, sundried tomatoes and olives, stir and get the flavors out. Add the vegetables, salt and pepper, and cover at medium heat until the vegetables are cooked but the snap peas need to still be firm.

In a pot, add water and bring to a boil, add salt. Put noodles and cook for 3 minutes or desired firmness. I still like all noodles do be al dente, including soba. Drain and add to the vegetables, heat up for a couple of seconds, add a little olive oil, mix all ingredients well together and serve.