Soba noodle salad with Korean chili paste “gochujang” sauce

I miss good authentic Korean food all year round, but there are a few cold dishes that I miss even more when summer hits Hong Kong hard. One of those dishes that I’ve been missing a lot lately is “Jaengban Guksu”, literally means noodles on a plate. It is cold soba served with lots of fresh vegetables and spicy Gochujang (fermented red chili paste) sauce and boiled eggs. Although called noodles, I think what it really highlights is the crunch vegetables. This dish is sweet, spicy, refreshing and quite healthy. The recipe doesn’t require any specific kind of vegetables, you can use whatever you like as long as they bring crunchiness to the dish. Cucumber and carrots are commonly used in Korea, and sometimes we add fruits like Asian pear. Apple will work great as well. I personally love adding as many rainbow color veggies as I can, not only for nutrition purpose but for making things more fun and pretty as well.

• Prep and Cook for 40-50mins, depending on your chopping skill 🙂
• Serves 2-3, leftover keeps in the fridge for a couple of days

Ingredients

• 200g. dry soba noodles
• 120g. purple cabbage
• 100g. baby carrots
• 100g. mini bell peppers
• 50g. baby spinach
• 2-3 eggs
• 2 – 2 1/2 tbsp. gochujang
• 1 tbsp. soy sauce
• 1 1/2 tbsp. honey
• 2 tsp. orange juice
• 2 tbsp. apple cider vinegar
• 1 tbsp. mirin
• 1/2 tsp. grain mustard
• a handful of pine nuts (optional)

Add noodles into a pot of boiling water. Cook for 5 minutes, drain and rinse under cold water. Set aside to cool further.

Blanch baby spinach for 30 seconds and set aside. Prepare rest of the the vegetables. Cut them into approximately half an inch thick slices and set aside. Using smaller vegetables makes this process much easier.

Bring a pot of water to a boil. The volume of water should be enough for eggs to completely submerge. Gently add eggs using strainer and cook for 7-8 minutes for soft boiled, or 11-12 minutes for hard boiled eggs.

Meanwhile, mix gochujang, soy sauce, honey, orange juice, apple cider vinegar, mirin, grain mustard for the sauce. If you don’t want it too spicy, add gochujang gradually tasting the mixture along the way.

Place cooked eggs in a bowl of cold water to stop the cooking process. Peel when they are cool enough.

Plate soba noodles and vegetables. Scatter pine nuts on top and serve with chili sauce and eggs.

Enjoy!