These iced sesame noodles have become my summertime bestie. Is it hot out? If so, there’s a good chance this is going to be on the table. I’m here to share the details before we run out of summer. Imagine a rotating cast of long, slurp-able noodles (soba, pici, somen, spaghetti, etc.) tangling with a creamy sesame sauce, topped with 4-5 easy toppings. That’s the basic formula. The noodles are served family-style in a large bowl of ice water. Everyone mixes up their own individual, custom portions. So good, so fun. Definitely a Japanese-inspired concept, dovetailing, in our house, with whatever is popping up at California farmers’ markets. I encourage you to incorporate whatever your family loves and the ingredients shining at your local markets.

Building an Iced Sesame Noodle Bowl

Aside from boiling the noodles, nearly everything else here can be prepared ahead of time. It’s part of what’s great about this and what makes it a weeknight-friendly meal. I like to toss some chopped veggies (whatever is on hand – broccoli, asparagus, etc.) in the pasta water after the noodles come out, keeping the cooking to a single pot. To summarize, here are the main components of the meal:

• Noodles: Keep a selection of favorites on hand.
  
• Homemade sesame sauce: make ahead and refrigerate for up to a week. Recipe below. Also, consider experimenting with almond butter and/or peanut butter in place of the tahini or sesame paste for another variation.
• Toppings: I’ll list off twenty-plus favorites. Choose 4-5 for your meal.
• Side veggies: And easy boost! As mentioned above, grab something that can do a quick boil in your pasta water after you remove the noodles. More ideas below.

Let’s Talk about Noodle Options

I’ve done fantastic versions of this meal with all of the following. Think long and slurp-able on the noodle front. I also check my noodle labels to make sure they’re not wildly salted, to be honest, I’ve been caught off guard  on a number of occasions.

• Soba: I love the combination of buckwheat soba noodles and sesame and soba traditionally works well with sesame sauces similar to this one. Soba is a frequent go-to when I make this recipe and cold soba, in general, is summertime wonderful.
• Somen: These thin Japanese wheat noodles are a crowd-pleasing favorite. Especially if you have picky eaters that aren’t as receptive to brown noodles.
• Homemade pici: A hand-rolled Italian pasta, if you’re up for more of a project, cold pici really makes this whole situation something extra special.
• Spaghetti: Give whatever spaghetti you love a try. I love the Monograno Felicetti Farro Spaghetti for its texture and boosted nutrition profile (not sponsored, just a fan), and the farro plays beautiful with the creamy sesame sauce. Pictured here.

Sesame Noodle Toppings

Choose 4-5 different toppings. I feel like grated ginger is a non-negotiable here. So good. And I leave any spicy component out of the base sesame sauce so that each person can light up their bowls with whatever level of spicy they can handle.

• grated ginger: peel ginger with a spoon and grate with a microplane grater into a small bowl. Key topping!
• something spicy: favorites for this recipe include Calabrian chile oil, chile crisp, tobanjan
• toasted seeds and/or nuts: za’atar, traditional gomasio, I also make a red gomasio-ish (pictured above) that I’ll post the recipe for soon, toasted peanuts, etc.
• tomatoes: specifically, these roasted cherry tomatoes
  
• crunchy bits: for example,  fried shallots or crispy jalapeño pieces (WB brought these home from TJ’s a few weeks ago)
• pesto: a little dollop of pesto in your bowl along with the sesame sauce is pretty great.
• lemon zest or chopped, preserved lemons
• makrut lime leaves: thinly slivered
• kale chips
• chives
• chopped scallions
• grated carrots
• hard boiled eggs, quartered

And as we move into later summer and early fall, and the weather is still hot enough for cold noodles, but the seasonal ingredients are shifting, here are a few other ideas:

• thinly sliced, crisp apple
• toasted pumpkin seeds
• simple cauliflower
• roasted cauliflower: This variation is next on my list, iced sesame noodles plus roasted cauliflower and some of the other ingredients in this recipe as toppings – mint, arugula, chopped dates, red onion, and a spice blend of toasted pine nuts, sesame, cumin, coriander, and red pepper flakes. It’s gonna be good.
  
• Also! For the iced noodle bowl (above), play around. Add thin citrus slices – Meyer lemon, rangpur lime, kishu mandarin, orange, key lime are all recent favorites. You can also add fresh herbs or lime leaves or use a cold broth. I have a cold mushroom broth that works really well. The recipe for that one is in Super Natural Simple, in the back.

While You’re At It: Add a Side Veggie!

Broccoli florets, asparagus tops, green beans, yellow beans, corn – these are just a few of the vegetables I’ve cooked in a flash after cooking the noodles for the bowls. Boil for a mint or so, strain under cold water and serve on the side. Everyone loves to work the vegetables into their noodle bowls as well.

More Noodle Recipes

• Walnut Miso Noodles 
• Ten+ Popular Noodle Recipes
• Vegetable Noodle Soup
• Sriracha Noodle Soup
• 20 Fantastic Noodle Soups
• Favorite Rice Noodle Stir Fry
• Fire Broth Noodle Soup
• Spicy Coconut Curry Noodles

Continue reading Iced Sesame Noodles on 101 Cookbooks

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We had a bunch of cabbage come out of the garden this year. I basically made one thing with it, a feathery slaw made from shredded green and red cabbages, apples, carrots, and scallions tossed with a spicy sesame dressing. Hands down, it’s my favorite coleslaw recipe. If you’ve ever had asparagus or spinach goma-ae at a Japanese restaurant you’ll recognize the inspiration for the dressing. Toss it all together, and you’ve got a great slaw on your hands. It’s good on its own. This slaw is fantastic on tacos and perfect as a side to soba noodles. I’ve even thrown a few big scoops in a bowl of short pasta with a few chickpeas and called it lunch. Prep a big bowl and enjoy it for days.

The Key to a Great Coleslaw

I’m funny about how I like my coleslaw, and it’s all about knife skills. I talked about it at length when I posted this Lime & Blistered Peanut Coleslaw years back, and it applies here as well. The cabbage should be chopped thin, whisper thin. I like each bite to be feathery as opposed to coarse or chunky. My feeling that a great coleslaw recipe is created with good knife skills and a short list of easy-to-find ingredients stands all these years later. Equal importance is placed on the ingredients and the cut of the cabbage.

Does Coleslaw Contain Dairy?

It doesn’t have to, but it can. This one doesn’t and I love it. In fact, it is probably obvious, but this isn’t a take on a classic coleslaw recipe. In those recipes you might see spices and accents like celery seed, Dijon mustard, grated onion or apple cider vinegar. Some slaws use mayo as the creamy base. And then, in many non-mayo slaws you’ll see Greek yogurt swapped in. Contrastingly, this recipe I like to uses citrus juice for acidity. The sesame dressing is beautifully creamy without dairy or mayo, and a rainbow of shredded crunchy ingredients makes things beautiful.

Spicy Sesame Coleslaw Dressing

The base of this coleslaw is pretty straightforward – cabbage, scallions, carrots, cilantro, and apple. But the dressing is where things get interesting here. The dressing is creamy sesame deliciousness accented with a jolt of sriracha (or whatever spicy component you like), and a balancing squeeze of fresh lime juice. The dressing coats all the slaw ingredients and brings it together into a creamy coleslaw dressing without mayonnaise. 

There are a few ways to grind the sesame seeds in this dressing. I tend to use my suribachi, a ridged Japanese grinding bowl. You can also have at it in a traditional mortar and pestle, or a few pulses in a food processor (or blender) will also do the trick. You have options!

Here’s how it looks as the dressing comes together, it’s creamy, flavor rich, and the perfect consistency to coat your slaw. You can make it as spicy (or not) as you like. Also, pro tip here, I always make double the dressing and use it throughout the week. 

Preparing Spicy Sesame Coleslaw Ingredients

Above you can see the slaw ingredients prior to dressing. Aside from slicing the apple, you can prepare all of the ingredients and the (sesame coleslaw dressing) a day or two before serving. I like to give the sliced apple a bath in lemon or lime juice just before tossing to keep them from discoloring. You’ll see that in the recipe instructions so heads up on that front. You can get a jump start on the rest of the shredding and chopping ahead of time. 

More Ideas

I wanted to highlight a few of the ways I’ve enjoyed this coleslaw in previous weeks. I literally put in on, in, or under everything around here and it is a bit out of control. The apples and carrots bring a bit of sweet, perfect to counterbalance with something spicy. You can see tofu marinating up above, I like to take that and cook it quickly in a skillet. Serve the tofu over the coleslaw with a side of soba noodles. A lot of the time I have some tofu marinating, so when I have this coleslaw in the refrigerator, boiling some soba turns this into a tasty ten minute meal – see photo below.

Coleslaw and Tacos

Here’s the other way I like to enjoy the spicy sesame coleslaw on repeat. You see it pictured below. It’s a taco situation. That marinated tofu up above? I treat it “fish taco-style” where it is dusted with a bit of cornstarch and then pan-fried until it gets a crispy crust. Here’s how the taco is assembled. Apply a thin layer of smashed avocado on a tortilla. Add a layer of well-cooked tempeh bacon (Wayne buys the Lightlife Smoky Tempeh Bacon), and then some of the cooked tofu. Brown the (filled) tortilla on both sides until golden. Immediately fill with lots of coleslaw. I like a little extra green salsa as well. This is my favorite lunch right now! Get the Vegan Fish Tacos recipe.

Here’s one more view of the taco + coleslaw situation from a slightly different angle so you can really get a sense of what is happening inside. My main advice is don’t skip on the coleslaw. I really load it up.

Coleslaw Recipe Shortcuts

I’m going to finish with a few shortcut suggestions here. As I mention up above you can do most of the prep for this recipe whenever you have a moment or two. I typically make a double batch of the dressing so it is ready in the refrigerator for me. Then all you need to do is a bit of chopping, grating, or shredding, and you’re good to go. I like to hand cut the cabbages here, so it is just to my liking, but beyond that you have options. If you have a grating attachment for your food processor, you can use that for the carrots, apples, and scallions. It definitely makes quick work things. Alternately you can use the large side of a box grater for the carrots and apples. I typically use a knife for everything (to avoid more dishes lol), but go with whatever you like. 
Wrapping things up, this is a fantastic slaw for everyday meals or to take to a bbq. You can see it here as part of this post about feel-good lunch ideas. Homemade coleslaw is a treat but if this isn’t your quite what you’re after, browse these other salad recipes, or try this Lime & Blistered Peanut Coleslaw, or this wonderful Cucumber Salad, or this Shredded Egg Salad. 

Continue reading Spicy Sesame Coleslaw on 101 Cookbooks

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