Sesame Noodles with Cucumber Cashew Salad

I can't remember the first time I discovered soba noodles, but once I did I kinda felt like I had won the food lottery. Soba noodles are made of buckwheat, and addition to being really, really tasty, they are actually pretty good for you, as far as pasta goes. And when you pair them with a scrumptious sauce and nestle a delicious cucumber cashew salad next to them...well, it's a good day when you can say you are having a super-delicious dinner and being virtuously healthy all at the same time. Right?

This quick cold noodle salad is another one from my week-long celebration of one of my new favorite cookbooks, STONEWALL KITCHEN FAVORITES, and if you haven't yet entered the giveaway for a signed copy of this fantastic book, click here. In the meantime, here's the scoop on this salad. The sauce is a speedy combo of garlic, ginger, scallions, tahini, chili paste, soy sauce and my personal favorite kitchen ingredient, peanut butter. You thin it down a little with some hot water from the cooking pasta, toss in some cilantro if you are a cilantro person, and that's it. The salad is a simple combo of chopped cucumber and cashews tossed with sesame oil and white vinegar with a little ground pepper.

All these exotic ingredients can usually be found in any decent supermarket. If you absolutely can't find soba noodles anywhere (and I promise you that Amazon will have them!), you can sub in linguine. You just won't get to feel as completely virtuous. All of this wonderfulness is fabulous on its own, and also the perfect accompaniment to grilled steak or chicken or fish.

Here's the delish recipe, and don't forget to enter the giveaway!

Sesame Noodles with Cucumber Cashew Salad, from Stonewall Kitchen Favorites

# minced garlic cloves
3 tablespoons minced fresh ginger
4 scallions, thinly sliced
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup tahini
2 teaspoons chili paste
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup minced cilantro
1 eight ounce package soba noodles (or linguine)
Sesame seeds for garnish

1 seedless cucumber, chopped
3/5 cup coarsely chopped cashews
2 tablespoons sesame oil
2 tablespoons rice or white wine vinegar
Fresh ground pepper

1. Bring large pot of lightly salted water to a boil.

2. In a large bowl, mix garlic, ginger and scallions. Mix in peanut butter and tahini. Add chili paste and soy sauce and stir well. Add 1/2 cup hot water from the pot and stir into sauce. Add cilantro.

3. Make salad by mixing cucumber, cashews, sesame oil and vinegar in a separate small bowl. Set aside.

4. Add noodles to boiling water and cook until just tender. Drain and run under cold water until cool. Drain again and toss with sauce until well-coated. Sprinkle with sesame seeds. Serve with cucumber salad on the side.

Click here for printable recipe

Honey Chicken Skewers

We are heading scandalously fast towards the end of summer, and so I am sending the Southern husband out to the grill at every available opportunity.  I'm not sure why, since he is perfectly wonderful about grilling in a snowstorm.

But nevertheless, grilling just isn't the same when it's not summertime, so our grill is getting a lot of action.  This recipe is a fun, eat-with-your-hands deal that is ready in absolutely no time.  You need to pick yourself up a packet of those thin wooden skewers, and be sure to give them a good soaking in water before you put the chicken strips on them.  As you can see from the picture, even soaking wet they still got a little charred.  Which is fine - you just want them to hold together for the most important part, which is the EATING.

But before you get to the eating there is the making.  You cut up chicken breasts into strips and thread them on to your skewers.  Fire up the grill and cook them for about 3-4 minutes, then flip 'em over and baste them with a quick sauce of ketchup, honey and soy sauce...and that's it!  I put a few ears of corn on the grill alongside the skewers and 10 minutes later we were digging in.  So keep that grill going as long as you can....

Honey Chicken Skewers, adapted from Real Simple

• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• kosher salt and pepper
• canola oil, for the grill
• 6 ears corn, shucked
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, cut into pieces

1. Place twenty 8-inch wooden skewers in water to soak. Heat grill to medium-high. In a small bowl, combine the ketchup, honey, and Worcestershire sauce; set aside. 

2. Slice the chicken lengthwise into twenty 1/2-inch-thick strips. Thread each strip onto a wooden skewer. Season with 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. 

3. Lightly oil the grill. Cook the chicken, turning occasionally, until cooked through, 6 to 8 minutes, basting with the ketchup mixture during the last 2 minutes of cooking. 

4. Meanwhile, grill the corn, turning occasionally, until slightly charred, 3 to 4 minutes. 

Serve with the chicken. 

 Click here for printable recipe