Vegan, low-fat, nut and gluten-free and actually pretty damn good

Soba noodles with mushrooms and cucumbers.  Doesn’t sound like much does it?  But after making it, I realized I’d hit one of those rare dishes–one that can be served to almost everybody.

I actually didn’t realize until after I’d made this how many categories it fit.  And I didn’t even mention all of them.  It’s also fast and requires only one fresh ingredient–cucumbers.  It also lasts reasonably well.  I had some in the fridge for a couple of days and it was fine.

That said, there is one caveat–this is a dish best served cool–not as cold as revenge, but maybe as cool as a grudge.  So make it ahead of time, otherwise make sure you have some ice cubes around to quickly cool down things.

The following serves 2 to 4.  It is an adaptation of a Japaese non-vegan dish from Elsa Petersen-Schepelern’s Meal in a Bowl.  Supermarkets with pretensions will have these ingredients, otherwise an Asian market with Japanese food will.

INGREDIENTS

Two bunches dried soba (buckwhat)noodles
Around 10 dried Shitake mushrooms (bit less than the usual package)
2 T soy sauce
2 T mirin (rice wine–it’s boiled away)
About half a medium cucumber, seeded( if large-seeded), peeled and cut into rough match sticks
scallions or green onion tops or a few shallot slices.  to taste

INSTRUCTIONS

Cover shitakes with one cup boiling water and let set for around 15 minutes

Cook noodles according to instructions–in other words, boil for almost no time and then toss into strainer and run cold water on them until they’re cool. Drain, set aside.

When mushrooms have softened, remove from water (but save the mushroom water).  Remove stems and and slice the muschroom caps into matchstick shapes.  Set mushrooms aside.

Combine mushroom soaking liquid, soy and mirin in saucepan, set on stove and bring to a boil.  Then lower heat and let simmer a couple of minutes until it thickens a bit.  Let cool.

Combine noodles, mushrooms, cukes and broth.  Top with some decorative rounds of green onion or scallions or desired member of the allium family.  Wasabi and dashi stock are traditional condiments, but it’s fine without.

Enjoy.