Bethany's Vegan Kitchen

This cold noodle salad combines vegetables, noodles and smoked tofu, in an Asian-inspired sauce. It’s ideal warm weather food and it’s perfect for lunches or main meals. It also keeps well in the fridge for a few days, so it’s great to for lunches in the week. It’s been especially warm here recently, so food like this is very much on my radar at the moment. Eating hot food makes me feel hotter than a dragon’s armpit, so I’m avoiding it if I can

Serves; Four to six Cook time; 10 minutes

You’ll need;

1. 120g shelled edamame
2. 150g noodles, this is the dry, uncooked weight
3. 120g carrot, sliced into long thin strips
4. 100g cucumber, sliced into long thin strips
5. 60g radish, thinly sliced
6. 45g spring onion, thinly sliced
7. 200g smoked tofu, chopped into small cubes

For the sauce, you’ll need;

1. Two tablespoons of pistachio butter
2. Two tablespoons of toasted sesame oil
3. Two tablespoons of soy sauce
4. Half a teaspoon of smoked paprika
5. One teaspoon of sesame seeds
6. The juice of one lemon
7. 60 ml water

Method;

• Cook the noodles as per the instructions on the packet. Once cooked, drain and rinse in cold water to stop the cooking process. Drain the noodles again, then leave them soaking in cold water while you prepare the vegetables
• Add the shelled edamame, carrot, cucumber, radish, spring onion and tofu into a large mixing bowl, gently fold everything together
• Next, in a small bowl whisk together the pistachio butter, sesame oil, soy sauce, smoked paprika, sesame seeds, lemon juice and water. Once the sauce is fully mixed together, pour it over the salad and toss to combine
• Chill the salad in the fridge for 30 minutes before serving

Pistachio Butter; As mentioned above, I used pistachio butter in the sauce for this salad. If you would like to use pistachio butter and would like to make it yourself, you can see how I make mine in this blog post. However if you’d prefer you can swap this for the same amount of any other nut or seed butter