Soba noodle salad with sesame ginger soy vinaigrette

Ah, pregnancy. A time of excitement, even though I don't have a lot of energy to be excited. Or cook. (Note the massive drop off in my blog posts.) However, there are some good things about it from the culinary perspective. Justin feels so sorry for me (well, he's sorry, but still hungry!) that he is much more willing to help with meal preparation. Last night he chopped the tomatoes and peaches. It was really cute watching him, as he took 20 minutes to chop five tomatoes. Let me say that those were some well-chopped tomatoes!

Anyways, my new cooking resolution is to spend time on only one dish per meal. (Let's see how well this resolution goes.) For this meal it was a soba noodle salad that I served with grilled chicken. I love sesame seeds and this did not disappoint. Enjoy!

Original recipe here:  http://thelemonbowl.com/2013/07/soba-noodle-salad-with-sesame-ginger-soy-vinaigrette.html (You'll note that I increased the veggies quite a bit.)

Ingredients

8 oz Japanese soba noodles
2 cups green beans (I bought about 2 lbs, but had to toss probably 20%)
3 medium carrots, grated
1 cup scallions, minced
3 tbsp black roasted sesame seeds
Salt and pepper to taste

Sesame ginger soy vinaigrette

2 tbsp lime juice
2 tbsp soy sauce (low sodium)
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp grated ginger
1 tbsp sesame oil
1/2 tbsp sriracha or sambal oelek - optional

Instructions

1. Bring a large pot of salty water to boil and add soba noodles. Cook according to package instructions adding the green beans 2 minutes before the end of cooking time.
2. Drain noodles and green beans in a strainer and rinse with cold water to stop cooking process. (This keeps the beans bright green.)
3. In the bottom of a medium bowl, whisk together the vinaigrette: lime juice, soy sauce, sugar, ginger, sesame oil and sambal oelek.
4. Add the soba noodles and green beans to the bowl with the vinaigrette along with the grated carrot, scallions and black roasted sesame seeds. Toss well to coat and season with salt and pepper to taste before serving.