Adapted from the wonderful Hetty McKinnon book Community. The original version is made with roast eggplant and is amazing, but my darlings won’t eat eggplant… This is so fast, so tasty and makes kick-ass leftovers for lunch. Make yourself some now!
Ingredients
- 400 g soba noodles
- 3 tbsp oil of choice
- 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 1-2 long red chillies, finely chopped (or a sprinkle of dried chilli flakes)
- 4 cm piece of ginger, grated
- 3-4 good sized zucchini, cut into 2cm cubes
- 400 g frozen, podded edamame beans, thawed (see note)
- 4 tbsp soy sauce
- 2 tbsp oyster sauce (or stir fry sauce if you are a really strict vegetarian)
- 1 tbsp sesame oil
- 1 tbsp black sesame seeds (or white ones if you can’t find black)
Method
Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil, add the noodles and cook for 3 minutes, stirring to prevent sticking. Drain and rinse with cold water.
Heat the oil in a large frypan over a high heat. Add the garlic, chilli and ginger and stir-fry for a minute or two.
Add the diced zucchini and keep stir-frying until tender (about 5 minutes, max).
Add the edamame and keep stirring for another minute or two.
Add the soy sauce, oyster sauce and sesame oil and keep stirring for yet another minute or so, just so things come together and the sauce thickens slightly.
Combine this salty, sesame-y, gingery yumminess with the noodles and toss to combine. Serve sprinkled with the sesame seeds.
Note
It can be tricky enough to find edamame beans, finding the packets where they have been conveniently podded for you could be a challenge too far (although I have found them in Harris Farm, but not reliably). I usually buy two packets of the beans in their pods for this recipe, thaw them and then get the girls to help me pod them. It adds inconvenience, but the recipe is still so very, very worth it!
If you want to make the original version, replace the zucchini with eggplant. Rather than stir-frying, roast the diced eggplant (drizzled with olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper) for 20 minutes in an oven heated to 200 deg C. Add the eggplant to the noodles at the end.