Gordon Ramsay’s soba noodle salad is from Ultimate Home Cooking (2013). Buckwheat soba noodles go in with kale, sugar snap peas and carrot ribbons, then get tossed with scallions, ginger and nori in a sesame, rice vinegar, soy and lemon dressing. It takes about 15 minutes and serves 4 as a side.
He wrote it as the partner for his teriyaki salmon. In the book’s salad chapter he says the Japanese “have always favoured light, healthy foods”, and that sticky teriyaki salmon with a simple soba noodle salad “makes an ideal lunch”. So if you want lunch rather than a side, that’s the pairing to make.
You can watch him cook both with his kids in his teriyaki salmon with soba noodle salad video on YouTube. The salmon goes into its marinade first, and the salad gets made while it waits in the fridge.
Gordon Ramsay’s Soba Noodle Salad
Course: SaladsCuisine: JapaneseDifficulty: Easy4
10
minutes5
340
kcalGordon Ramsay’s soba noodle salad recipe from Ultimate Home Cooking, dressed Japanese style with sesame oil and soy. These amounts make a side for 4.
Ingredients
- For the salad:
300 g (10½ oz) soba noodles
100 g (3½ oz) kale, stalks removed, leaves shredded or torn
150 g (5 oz) sugar snap peas, trimmed and halved lengthways
3 carrots, peeled and sliced into ribbons with a vegetable peeler
2 scallions, trimmed and finely chopped
3 cm (1¼ inch) piece of fresh ginger, peeled and finely sliced
- For the dressing:
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 to 2 teaspoons rice vinegar
1 to 1½ tablespoons soy sauce
juice of ½ lemon
1 sheet of nori seaweed, finely sliced (optional)
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Directions
- Cook: Cook the soba noodles following the packet instructions. When they’re almost done, add the kale, sugar snaps and carrot ribbons to the pan to blanch, then drain once the noodles are tender.
- Dress: Add the scallions, ginger, sesame oil, rice vinegar, soy sauce, lemon juice and nori. Season with a little salt and pepper, stir well and serve.
Notes
- The nori is optional, but the book asks you to add it if you can, for a real depth of flavor.
- Calories are about 340 a serving, and most of them come from the noodles.
FAQs
What are soba noodles?
Japanese noodles made from buckwheat, which is why they come out that grayish brown color. He explains it to his kids in the video while the noodles go in.
In the book he calls it a “filling side dish”, so it holds its own next to the salmon.
How long do soba noodles take to cook?
About 5 minutes, he says in the video. The book still tells you to follow the packet instructions, so check yours.
How do I cut the carrot ribbons?
With a vegetable peeler. Run it straight down the carrot in long strokes and you get big, long ribbons, the quick way he shows in the video.
Shaved that thin, they need only about a minute in the water. Leave them in longer and the vegetables go soft and mushy.
What teriyaki salmon goes with it?
His own, from the same book: marinate 4 salmon fillets, about 500 g (1 lb 2 oz) in total, for at least 20 minutes and up to 2 hours. The marinade is 3 tablespoons soy sauce, 2 tablespoons maple syrup, 1 tablespoon mirin, sliced ginger and garlic, and a drizzle of olive oil.
Cook them skin side down over medium heat for 2 minutes, pour in the marinade and give them a minute more, then turn and baste for 3 to 4 minutes. Skin side first is his rule for fish, because it protects the delicate flesh from too much heat.
Zaytouna Studio Team is the kitchen team behind Chef Ramsay Recipes. We cook Gordon Ramsay’s recipes from his cookbooks and videos in a home kitchen and write them up for yours, with US and metric measurements.