Cucumber and Sesame Soba Noodle Salad with Ocean Trout and Yuzu Dressing

Spring has finally sprung and although it’s had a slightly rocky start with bouts of rain, it seems it’s finally here to stay. To welcome warmer days, I thought I’d make a beautiful, light and fresh salad. This dish has a slight Japanese edge with the yuzu and soba noodles. Yuzu is one of my absolute favourite things. It’s a citrus fruit from Japan that tastes like a mix of lemon, lime and grapefruit all combined in one. It’s very hard to get your hands on the fruit itself but you can get the juice from most Asian grocers and it’s so worth finding some. The tang is so delicious and extremely more-ish. Combined with the fresh-ness of the mint and watercress, the crunch of the snow peas and noodles, the smokiness of the trout and the toasted goodness of the sesame this dish is a winner.

Cucumber and Sesame Soba Noodle Salad with Ocean Trout and Yuzu Dressing

Serves 2

Ingredients:

• 120g snow peas
• 1 cucumber, quartered lengthways and chopped
• 2 radishes, thinly sliced
• ½ bunch watercress, leaves picked
• 3 sprigs mint, leaves torn
• ½ tbs toasted sesame seeds
• 90g soba noodles, cooked according to packet instructions
• 100g smoked ocean trout

Dressing:

• 1/8 cup yuzu juice
• 2 tsp soy sauce
• 1 tbs olive oil
• ¼ tsp crushed garlic

Method:

Place a medium sized pot on the stove over a high heat and bring to the boil. Add the snow peas and blanch for 30 seconds, then refresh in cold water. In a bowl add the snow peas, cucumber, radishes, watercress, mint, half the sesame seeds, soba noodles and smoked ocean trout and toss together.

For the dressing: combine all the ingredients in a bowl. Then toss the dressing through the salad and serve.