Quick Summer Lunching

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We are in the thick of June now, aren’t we? Seems so sudden but the neighbor kid across the street bounces his basketball at all hours of the day instead of just after school, and we’ve had a few real sundress afternoons in Seattle. I remember when summer used to be this broad expanse of what seemed like endless time. There were trips to the local library with my mom, outdoor sprinklers, mid-day naps and sleepovers that included spoonfuls of raw cookie dough with my best friend, Kristin. It obviously looks different now. There is a noticeable lack of mid-day naps and raw cookie dough, that’s for sure. There are deadlines and work obligations, but at least they’re often punctuated with sunny mornings, outdoor cocktails at our funky little picnic table, occasional gardening and quick camping trips.

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While the days are longer, for some reason they tend to fill up just as quickly so lunch often ends up a haphazard meal — usually a combination of leftover grains, some vegetables from the crisper and a fried egg. Alternatively, a substantial salad or Sam’s coleslaw is a good fill in. But this year, I’ve gotten really into cold soba noodle salads. The noodles cook in a mere 4 minutes and they’re just as good cold as they are warm. If you’re new to soba noodles, they’re made of buckwheat so they’re naturally gluten-free (just be sure to buy the buckwheat variety if gluten is a concern as they do make wheat-based soba noodles now, too). They feel much lighter than traditional pasta noodles, making them a natural choice for the warmer summer months.

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Along with seasonal lunch slumps comes the inevitable summer hustle of weddings, graduations, social obligations … you know. In the midst of all that, it’s often easy to retreat into quicker, easier ways of coordinating our days. Last week I read a great article in The New York Times by Jonathan Safran Foer called How Not to Be Alone (thanks to Olaiya for passing it on). In it, Safran Foer discusses how so many of us have begun to prefer substitutes for actually connecting with family, friends and neighbors instead of the real thing. I’m just as guilty: I’ll often prefer text messages over phone calls to quickly arrange meetings with friends. Sam chides me at the farmers market because there are some people who just like to stand at the booth and chat — obviously not intending to buy a bag of granola and, truthfully, blocking the table for others who may wish to. He always assures me they could be customers someday once I make a genuine connection with them. Or maybe they’re just having a rough day and need to chat. In Sam’s camp, Safran Foer mentions that “everyone is always in need of something that another person can give, be it undivided attention, a kind word or deep empathy.”

The final paragraph of his essay really caught my breath. I read it a few times. Then I thought about it for two days straight: “We live in a world made up more of story than stuff. We are creatures of memory more than reminders, of love more than likes. Being attentive to the needs of others might not be the point of life, but it is the work of life. It can be messy, and painful, and almost impossibly difficult. But it is not something we give. It is what we get in exchange for having to die.” It’s easy to forget all of that. It’s easy to look past the people standing at your farmers market booth who want to say hello — just because. It’s easy to text your friends with business questions instead of calling or curse your landlord for not having email, thereby forcing you to actually pick up the phone.

I can’t say that I’ve mastered any of it. I still like emails and text messages to coordinate with friends and family; it gives me time to measure my response and check the calendar. But this article made me pause as I think about my last post and how much better I feel having more people in my day-to-day life now. I guess I was saying the same thing as Safran Foer — just not as eloquently. Connecting with each other is all we have. Today it’s easier to skirt around it than to actually dive in. But maybe, just for the summer, we can all practice the fine art of the dive. I’m going to try.

After I put the photos of this recipe up on the site, I realized it looks quite similar to this pasta salad with avocado dressing that I made weeks ago. I must be in a the mood for seedy pasta dishes with flavor-forward sauces — because here we are again. But this one is quite different, I assure you. Since seeing the parsley pesto recipe in Bon Appetit, I’ve had parsley on my mind. My version has a bit of added garlic and lemon zest for brightness. It’s super green — which I love — and is a great way to use up leftover parsley.

Beyond the noodles, this salad has all of the textures a good noodle salad should have: crisp radishes and English cucumbers paired with mild sheep’s milk cheese and toasty seeds — a most satisfying summer lunch on its own or a great accompaniment to a larger dinner spread. In truth, you can add any vegetables (or cubed tofu) you’d like here: blanched asparagus, summer carrots or English peas would be colorful and delicious. Or chop up a mess of summer greens like kale or arugula and fold those in at the end. If you try a variation, I’d love to hear about it!

 

Seedy Soba Noodle Salad with Parsley Pesto

Seedy Soba Noodle Salad with Parsley Pesto

  • Yield: 4 as a main portion, 6 as a side
  • Prep time: 15 mins
  • Cook time: 10 mins
  • Total time: 25 mins

I like this salad cold but you could certainly rinse the soba noodles under hot water instead of cold water, toss it all together and serve hot. A quick logistics note: there are pepitas in both the salad and the pesto, so plan to purchase and use 1 1/2 cups total.  Next time I make this, I’m going to top each serving with a bit of lemon zest, and maybe even fold chopped parsley into the salad itself. Red chile flakes would be nice, too.

Ingredients

For Salad:

9-ounce package soba noodles (use gluten-free noodles to ensure this is a gluten-free dish if that's of concern)
4 large radishes, thinly sliced
3 tablespoons thinly sliced green onions, light green and white parts only (about 2-3)
1 English cucumber, halved lengthwise, seeded and diced
3/4 cup raw pepitas (pumpkin seeds)
1/4 cup raw sesame seeds
1/4 cup crumbled ricotta salata or other firm sheep's milk cheese
Kosher salt, to season

For Parsley Pesto (Makes about 1 1/4 cups pesto)

3/4 cup raw pepitas
4 cups packed fresh flat-leaf parsley (about 2 bunches)
2 cloves garlic, quartered
1/2 cup chopped fresh chives
3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil, plus more to thin if desired
1/4 cup finely grated Parmesan
1 tablespoon lemon zest
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste
Freshly-ground black pepper, to taste

Instructions

Cook the soba noodles in a medium pot of boiling salted water for 4 minutes. Drain then rinse thoroughly under cold water. Drain again and pat dry.

Toast the seeds: Preheat the oven to 350 F. Lay all of the pepitas (1 1/2 cups) in an even layer on one side of a rimmed baking sheet and sesame seeds on the other side. Toast for about 5 minutes, or until slightly fragrant — the sesame seeds should become more golden than white. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.

Make the pesto: Pulse 3/4 cup toasted and cooled pepitas in a food processor until smooth. Add parsley, garlic, chives, oil and Parmesan and process until smooth. Fold in lemon zest and season with salt and pepper.

Assemble: In a large bowl, toss together the soba noodles with the radishes, green onion, cucumber, toasted seeds (I reserve about a tablespoon of each to sprinkle on top) and ¾ cup – 1 cup parsley pesto. Taste and season with salt and pepper. Fold in the ricotta salata at the end. Divide into serving bowls and sprinkle with some the reserved toasted seeds. Leftovers will keep for 2-3 days if covered and refrigerated.

Comments

  1. Kate

    Oh, this looks great! I made the Bon Appetit parsley pesto recipe last month and that was amazing.

  2. nicole

    This looks so good! So summery and perfect. Def. going on my to-make list :)

  3. Alisa Clayton

    Hi Megan,

    Thank you for writing the excerpt of the article in the New York Times by Jonathan Safran Foer. It's such great food for thought (pun intended) I'm a teacher and sometimes I have students who linger after class to chat and I realize its just to connect with someone. And often times I'm the one lingering at the farmers market stand to chat and I find it's just to make that human connection. And I must say I'm guilty as well of texting my friends because I don't want to get into a lengthy conversation...I'd like to change that ; )

    Your soba noodle recipe looks fantastic...I'm having some friends over tomorrow and I may make it for them and then linger over our lunch while we get back to basics, a good old fashion chat session minus instruments of texting.

    Cheers!

    Alisa from San Francisco

    1. megang

      Hi, Alisa-
      So nice to hear from you + thank you for your thoughtful comment. I used to be a teacher, too, and I remember that feeling of wanting to run and grab lunch or get home and having kids linger and sort of cursing them in my head. I think you raise a really good point that they just want to connect outside of the normal realm of student/teacher/classroom. Especially younger teens, no?

      The soba noodles are really wonderful and so, so perfect for summer lunches. You can toss in anything you have in the refrigerator that you're inspired to use (we've been doing cubed tofu, broccoli and sesame seeds lately). Enjoy and thank you for saying hello! ~Megan

  4. Cooking Clumsily

    Thankyou so much for this, I made it tonight and everyone adored it, it will become a regular in our home!

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