The Century Mark

It just so happened that last night I noticed I had posted 99 times. I started to wonder what I should do for my 100th post.  I thought it would be nice to do something that captured the spirit of the blog, but I'd only planned to share my recipe for a soba noodle salad (not 100th post material). Today when I was prepping ingredients with Wylie, shooting pictures and then sitting down to share lunch with him I realized that Poppy Haus is about moments like these.  It's about creatively living your everyday life. 

So here's that recipe. Try it, you'll like it.

 I am a chow hound.  By this I mean that I like to eat a LOT.  I know this is only good for me if what I'm eating is very healthy, and by that I mean mostly vegetables. For this recipe I use buckwheat soba noodles (found at most grocery stores)and seasonal crunchy green things. To make it more of an entree add chopped shrimp or shredded chicken. It's also wonderful with a little mango.  The secrets in the sauce.  It's salty, tangy and nutty. Also, because it's "noodles" my kids will eat it.


Soba Noodle Salad
(serves 2-4) 


2 bundles of buckwheat soba noodles
1 cup of chopped snap peas
1/2 bunch of asparagus, bias cut into 1 inch pieces
1 cup of broccoli florets, halved


For Sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon of low sodium soy sauce
2 tablespoons of rice wine vinegar

Directions:

In a large saucepan bring 6 cups of water to boil.  
Add noodles and reduce heat to simmer for 4 minutes.
Remove from heat, strain, and put noodles into a large bowl half filled with ice water to flash cool for 2 minutes.  
Strain noodles, discard ice water and return the noodles to the bowl.


Fill a wide shallow sauce pan with 3 inches of water.  
Bring to a boil and reduce heat just below the boiling point.  
Add broccoli, blanch for 1 minute, remove, allowing to cool on a plate. 
Add asparagus to the pan, blanch for 1 minute and remove to the cooling plate. 


Prepare sauce by whisking ingredients together.


Pour sauce over the noodles and toss until coated.  Add the snap peas, broccoli and asparagus (once cooled), toss until coated.  Season with sea salt if desired.