Soba Noodles

[weinoo]

I haven't cooked the ones w/o yam yet.  All I know is that the "real" soba noodles I get to eat, at a place like Sobaya, have a wonderful texture. These Japanese noodles pictured, cooked at home, don't have quite the same toothiness. 

[MollyB]

If your buckwheat noodles were truly wheat-free and you really couldn't tell the difference between them and the typically available ones--which are made partly from wheat--anyone who avoids wheat would like to know what brand they are. For a period of time I was not eating wheat, and I could never find 100% buckwheat noodles. I eat modest amounts of wheat now, and I'm very happy about that, but there was a period of time during which $2.50 per serving would have been a bargain for a noodle that actually tasted like a noodle. (For those who don't know this, buckwheat is not a close relative of wheat and is usually okay for those who are gluten-free.)

 

I, too, was not eating wheat for a while and finally found that Eden Organics makes 100% buckwheat soba noodles that I found at my local co-op. But it turns out that there's a reason wheat flour is usually added to soba noodles. The texture wasn't nice at all, almost crumbly, without the wheat. They were OK warm when I first made them, but after refrigeration they really were not very good. I can now eat some wheat and am very happy to be able to eat regular soba noodles again.. 

 

As for recipes, SobaAddict70 pointed me on another thread (on low-FODMAP cooking) to this list of soba noodle recipes that I liked a lot: http://www.101cookbooks.com/ingredient/soba%20noodle I especially enjoyed the recipe at that link for Otsu, which was good both warm and cold. 

[Thanks for the Crepes]

Thanks MollyB,

 

I have a big bunch of soba recipes bookmarked now, and with huiray's help on prep, including rinsing the noodles with cold water after cooking, I will be able to proceed more confidently on my next attempt.

 

I know some people adore this dish, and I would like to become one of them.

[Anna N]

Udon noodeles are also very high in sodium. Recently I've seen some Japanese noodles that are "low sodium" but have not tried them. It doesn't stop me buying them because they are so yummy but I never salt the water when I cook Japanese noodles.I'm not sure I can tell the difference between the soba that has yam as an ingredient and the soba that doesn't. Is there a difference in flavor or texture that you notice?

Purchased in Buffalo, New York yesterday at Wegmans. 100% buckwheat and 0% sodium.

[Katie Meadow]

I examined my stash of buckwheat noodles and lo and behold one pack has no salt. There's more variety in these noodles than I would have thought. What does "zaru" indicate?

My go-to simplest sauce for noodles is the Momofuku ginger scallion dressing (easy to find on line). Works on hot noodles and room temp noodles. Never tried it on cold, but it's hard to imagine it would be bad. The recipe makes an enormous quantity, so I cut the ingredients by half. And I use less ginger than suggested. Also I don't mince ginger--I find that grating on the microplane or even the box grater makes it juicier and infuses the flavor better. Great on buckwheat or udon and probably on rice noodles as well. Add-ons welcome, like thinly sliced cukes, radish, chopped peanuts, etc.

[weinoo]

Zaru.

[Thanks for the Crepes]

Katie Meadow,

 

Thanks for another recipe. I bookmarked the one from Saveur.

 

I'm sure that with all this great information y'all have provided I'll either be able to come to love this dish as so many do, or make an intelligent and informed decision that it's just not up my alley.