Soba Noodle Salad with Garlic Scapes

Well, my CSA started up again this week, and I'm so excited.  Yesterday's delivery included eggs, French breakfast radishes, kale, asparagus, kohlrabi, garlic scapes, rhubarb, and herbs that you plant in your own pots at home.  They did this with the herbs last year, too, and actually my chives came back this spring.  When I planted the herbs last night, I had my fingers crossed that the sage wouldn't die like last time.


Anyway, onto the food.  The newsletter had some really awesome-looking recipes, so I decided to try the first one:  soba noodle salad with garlic scapes.

Garlic scapes are the curly tops of the garlic plant; they are stems that hold up the reproductive part of the garlic plant.  They are sort of similar to scallions, except they taste like garlic.  (And instead of being hallow like scallions, they have more of an asparagus texture, but thinner.)


Anyway, I can never quite figure out how to use these effectively.  I like a garlic scape white bean dip that has appeared in the CSA newsletter the last couple of years, but that gets tiresome.  The recipe that I tried last night was not only the best garlic scape recipe I've ever tried, but it was probably the best thing I've made at home all year.  And it took all of ten minutes.

Soba Noodle Salad with Garlic Scapes

Salad

• 1 cup garlic scapes, cut into thin strips about 2-3 inches long
• 1 pack of buckwheat soba noodles (12 oz.)
• 1/2 red bell pepper, thinly sliced (I used a whole bell pepper)
• 2 tbsp. toasted sesame seeds
• 1 tbsp. sesame oil

Dressing

• 1/4 cup seasoned rice vinegar
• 3 tbsp. soy sauce
• 1 tbsp. grated ginger
• 1 tsp. sugar (this is the only item I omitted)
• 2 tsp. prepared wasabi (OK, wait, I also omitted this item, but not because I didn't have it, I just forgot it)
• 2 tbsp. neutral oil (I used SmartBalance)
• 1 tsp. lemon or orange zest (I used lemon; do not omit this, it really makes the dish!)

Directions

1. Whisk all dressing ingredients until well combined.
2. Cook soba noodles as directed on the package.  When they are one minute from being done, add the garlic scape strips and cook for one more minute.  Drain and pour the contents into a bowl.  Add the red bell pepper, sesame seeds, sesame oil, and dressing and mix to combine.

SO GOOD.  I am glad I didn't add the sugar, because it was perfect as it was.  And, believe it or not, thanks to all my forays into Asian cooking, the only ingredients I had to buy were the red bell pepper and the ginger.  I served this with a Fin du Monde beer, a Belgian-style tripel from Canada.

I am also really proud to say that Dave and I ate this with chopsticks!  It was so satisfying that way, I really can't explain why.  I brought leftovers for lunch today and I am a little sad that I didn't think to bring chopsticks, too.  Oh well.

If I remember correctly, garlic scapes are going to be in every other freaking CSA box, so I'd better go stock up on soba noodles now.  I could eat this every day.