Portland reached 115 degrees today. It’s not yet July. It’s been hard to face what this scorching heat means for the months to come and the health of plants, animals, and one another.
Cooking has been brutal with the temperature inside my home at 95 degrees. One thing that is helping me enormously is the ease of our Noodles with Miso Sesame Sauce, and cold noodle salads generally. I put water on to boil, rinse and prep a few veggies (or in this case, just open a jar of Choi’s kimchi!), walk away, sit in front of our box fan, come back once the water is sputtering, boil the noodles for 2 minutes, toss with sauce, top with toppings, and that’s it! It’s as low maintenance as a sandwich and infinitely more texturally interesting and fun to eat. I won’t confess how many times I ate our Noodles with Miso Sesame Sauce during the last week and this heat wave. Ok, I will: 5 times.
This is a minimalist recipe. Please feel invited to riff. Whatever you’ve got in your fridge just might work!
Want to make your own miso sesame sauce and use your ramen noodles. Here’s a great recipe.
Serves 2
1 package Umi Organic Noodles with Miso Sesame Sauce
Large handful snap peas, string removed, sliced on a bias
Large handful cherry tomatoes, cut in half
Kimchi, sliced - I bet you know how much you want!
1 to 2 soft-boiled eggs (I boil mine 6 minutes, chill in ice water, then peel)
Tin of sardines in oil
Directions:
Bring a large pot of water to a rapid boil. Tease apart the noodles. Drop the noodles into the boiling water. Start a timer for 2 minutes. Stir occasionally to loosen the noodles. When the timer rings, drain the noodles in the colander and rinse under cold running water until fully chilled. Shake out the water thoroughly. Toss noodles with sauce. Divide between two bowls. Top with snap peas, tomato, kimchi, soft-boiled egg, and a sardine. Enjoy!
Photos by Shawn Linehan.
