Bibim Guksu - Cold Soba Noodle Salad

With summer approaching incredibly fast this year we want to start getting ready with some super tasty recipes. And we've found the perfect dish: Bibim Guksu, a flavourful cold soba noodle salad that will keep you fuelled and refreshed on the many beach days ahead. 

I love diving into all the different cuisines around the world for recipe inspiration. Korean cuisine has a great variety of dishes that are not exactly popular in the western world. We often hear about Korean BBQ but there's so much more to explore. 

Bibim Guksu is one of those dishes that deserves a lot more attention than what it gets. In Korea it is super popular, especially during summer time. And without a doubt, it is a fresh meal and it has all the different elements that make Korean food so incredibly delicious. 

If you've never had or heard of Bibim Guksu let me introduce you to this delight. It's a cold noodle dish usually mixed with veggies (or some sort of meat) and it's seasoned with a sweet and sour chilli sauce. 

There are many different ways to prepare this dish. The noodles are usually wheat or buckwheat (soba) and the sauce can be spicy or mild. Also, there are many options when it comes to the veggies mixed in with the noodles. 

I'm using vegetables that I can easily find around my area. If you are having a hard time finding the same ingredients you can prepare your cold soba noodle salad with other stuff. Usually, carrots, mung bean sprouts and salad greens are easily available. The only vegetable that might be a bit trickier is the watercress. 

Fortunately, watercress is a leafy green so you can always substitute for any other leafy green. Just make sure you use the ones that are good to eat in its raw form, maybe baby spinach, lambs lettuce or arugula. 

I like adding watercress to my cold soba noodle salad because of the many benefits it brings to the table. It has a high content of vitamins, minerals and antioxidant which makes it incredibly beneficial for our health. 

Check out some of its numerous benefits:

• Improves bone health 
• Acts as antidepressant 
• Reduces risk of cancer 
• Improves brain health 
• Improves eye sight 
• Provides thyroid support 
• Boosts inmune system

Once we have all the veggies sorted out we need to make the sauce for our cold soba noodle salad. This is what will make this salad so special. The dressing is made with kimchi juice, maple syrup, rice vinegar, soy sauce and toasted sesame oil. 

This dressing is quite mild. Some recipes are made with chilli paste but I wanted to keep it kid-friendly, or me-friendly to be honest. But if you are better at eating chilli than I am you can always add a little bit of chilli paste to it. 

Now you just have to cook the soba noodles, mix everything, together and you are done! It is really that easy. You will have the most flavourful cold soba noodle salad that is both refreshing and delicious.