Sweet Chilli Soba Noodles

These easy vegan Sweet Chilli Soba noodles are an all-time favourite summer dish. We have it all, crunchy veggies, fun noodles, crispy tofu, and a delicious sauce with loads of flavour. If it's a picnic, mid-week lunch, or a casual potluck, this recipe has you covered. 

I wasn't really sure what to call this dish when I first made it since it fits a few different categories. I guess we can also call it Asian noodle salad with chilli sauce. But I just kept it simple, since it is something between a salad and a stir-fry. 

I was after a healthy and light lunch but I needed something filling and yummy. So I came up with this "in-between" beauty and did some experimenting with cold noodles and crunchy veggies to switch things up. 

I haven't done much cold-noodle cooking in my days. But an Asian noodle salad sounded near perfect. I envisioned in my head something a bit more filling and that's how the load of veggies and tofu came into the picture. 

I didn't want to ruin my meal so I did a quick research about noodles. I found that soba noodles are great for cold dishes. You know how some noodles, once they get a bit cold you don't want them near you? They get chewy or just super doughy. Well, this won't happen with soba noodles. 

Soba noodles are made from buckwheat, so they are much less starchy than noodles made from wheat. This is why they keep so well and why they are healthier and lighter than many other kinds.

Another thing I love about soba noodles is that they are gluten-free! You can cook so many different recipes with them and you will never get bored. This recipe is not gluten-free since it has soy sauce. But if you need to make it gluten-free there are some soy sauce options out there you can use. 

I used the soy sauce and a few other ingredients to make the sauce for our dish. We have grated fresh ginger, a bit of garlic, maple syrup, toasted sesame oil, and mild red chilli. Make sure to remove the seeds of the chilli so it's less spicy. And add it at the end and slowly so you can adjust the spiciness as you go. I don't want to make you cry with too much chilli in your meal! 

We can't have an Asian noodle salad without veggies, so I made sure I added a bunch of colourful ones to this summer dish. We have some spinach, carrots, red cabbage and shallots. I toss them on the frying pan just quickly so they keep they're crunchy and don't lose their color. 

For an extra kick of protein and to make it a well-rounded meal, I also threw in a few cubes of fried tofu to the mix. Mix everything in a bowl, make sure that the taste is perfect, and you can now stuff your face with this delicious meal!