Buckwheat Noodles with Peanut Sauce & Veg

• 200 gbuckwheat noodles
• 1 tbsprice vinegar
• 1red pepper, thinly sliced
• 3 tbsppeanut butter
• 2 tbsproasted peanuts, crushed
• 2 tbspsoy sauce
• 1 tspsesame oil
• 200 gedamame, frozen, thawed
• 2pak choi, halved
• 1 tspsriracha
• 1lime, zest and juice
• Fine salt
• 10 gflat-leaf parsley, chopped (optional)

Method

1. 1Bring a large pan of water to the boil; add enough salt for the water to taste balanced.
2. 2Cook the buckwheat noodles to packet instructions, usually 4–5 minutes, until tender with a slight chew. Drain, rinse under cold water until they feel cool to the touch; this stops the cooking and washes off the surface starch that would otherwise glue them into a single brick.
3. 3Drop the halved pak choi into the same hot water and blanch for 60 seconds, just until the stems turn glassy at the edges and the leaves flash bright green. Lift out and drain; any longer and they go limp and grey.
4. 4Whisk the peanut butter, soy sauce, rice vinegar, sesame oil and sriracha in a small bowl with 3 tbsp warm water. The warm water is the trick; it loosens the peanut butter so the sauce comes together silky and pourable, the colour of milky coffee, rather than seizing into a stiff paste.
5. 5Taste the sauce. Most of the salt is doing its work through the soy, but you want balance; a touch more rice vinegar if it feels heavy, a few drops of soy if it's flat, more sriracha if you want heat.
6. 6Tip the drained noodles into a large bowl with the sliced red pepper and edamame. Pour over the sauce and toss thoroughly with tongs or two forks, lifting from the bottom, until every strand is glossy and coated. Fold the pak choi through last so the leaves don't bruise.
7. 7Taste one more time; a noodle with sauce, a piece of pepper, a bean. Season with a pinch of salt if it needs lifting.
8. 8Divide between two bowls, scatter with the crushed roasted peanuts for crunch, and tuck a lime wedge alongside each bowl to squeeze over at the table; the lime juice cuts through the richness of the peanut sauce and wakes everything up.

Per serving

kcal

779

protein

38.7g

fibre

16.6g

carbs

104.9g

fat

28.1g