BEEF AND SOBA NOODLE SALAD
This beef and soba noodle salad features caramelised cashews for extra deliciousness! A simple meal that’s full of interesting flavours.
This recipe was inspired by a meal I had at The Powderkeg in Ohakune recently. It was also the weekend where I tried snowboarding for the first time. Fortunately all the good food we ate more than made up for my miserable efforts in the snow (sports that involve balance and controlling something with your feet have never been my thing)!
I’ll definitely be cooking with soba noodles again. This salad kept well for a few days in the fridge and the noodles didn’t stick together at all. It’s a great meal prep option!
BEEF AND SOBA NOODLE SALAD
This beef and soba noodle salad features caramelised cashews for extra deliciousness! Another simple weeknight meal that’s full of interesting flavours.
Ingredients
CARAMELISED CASHEWS
- 1 Tbsp butter
- 1/2 cup roasted, salted cashews (75g)
- 1 Tbsp brown sugar
SALAD
- 2 courgettes
- 1 Lebanese cucumber
- 100 g sugar snap peas or snow peas (3.5oz)
- 1 clove garlic
- 4 Tbsp rice wine vinegar
- 3 Tbsp water
- 2 1/2 Tbsp soy sauce
- 2 Tbsp brown sugar
- 1 1/2 Tbsp mirin
- 1 Tbsp sesame oil
- 1 tsp finely grated ginger
- 60 g watercress (2.1oz)
BEEF AND NOODLES
- 160 g dried soba noodles (5.6oz)
- 600 g beef rump steak (1lb 5oz)
- 1 Tbsp olive oil
Instructions
CARAMELISE CASHEWS
Melt butter in a medium frying pan on medium heat. Add cashews and sugar. Cook, stirring, until sugar has dissolved and cashews are well coated with butter and sugar mixture (about 4-5 minutes - watch carefully to make sure they don’t burn). Remove onto a piece of baking paper and leave to cool.
PREPARE SALAD
Spiralise or julienne courgettes. Slice cucumber into half rounds. Trim any hard ends off sugar snaps.
Crush garlic. In a medium bowl, whisk together garlic, vinegar, water, soy sauce, sugar, mirin, oil and ginger.
COOK BEEF AND NOODLES
Bring a large pot of water to the boil. Add noodles and cook for 5 minutes, until tender. While noodles cook, heat a large frying pan on medium-high. Rub oil over steak and season well with salt and pepper. Cook for 3 minutes each side (this should cook the steak to medium rare - adjust to suit your tastes).
Meanwhile, drain noodles and rinse under cold water. Remove steak onto a board, cover with foil and leave to rest for 5 minutes. Add dressing mixture to pan used to cook steak in and simmer rapidly for 1-2 minutes, until slightly thickened. Remove from heat.
Microwave sugar snaps for 1 minute, until tender. Combine noodles, courgettes, cucumber and sugar snaps in a large bowl. Season with salt and pepper and toss to combine.
SERVE
Thinly slice steak. Divide salad between serving bowls. Top with steak, drizzle with dressing, sprinkle with cashews and finish with a handful of watercress.
Recipe Notes
WINE MATCH: An off-dry Riesling.
GLUTEN-FREE OPTION: Use gluten-free soy sauce. Check to make sure mirin is gluten-free. You will need to use gluten-free soba noodles (100% buckwheat, rather than a combination of buckwheat and wheat flour). If you can’t find these, try rice vermicelli instead.
INGREDIENT SWAPS / NOTES: You could swap the sugar snaps / snow peas for capsicum (no need to microwave). Baby spinach or baby kale could be used in place of the watercress.
STORING AND REHEATING: Leftover salad can be eaten cold. Store individual portions in the refrigerator. Keep cashews separate, at room temperature, and add just before serving.
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4 Comments
Not sure when I will get to write a review of Josie’s food that doesn’t include an adjective such as fabulous, flavoursome, great. This is another one, again during second lockdown (no sugar snap peas, cucumbers and capsicums too expensive) so just got a couple of zucchini’s (my extravagant buy) and julienned them with a super salad mix. No cashews either so I caramalised hazelnuts a friend had given us. I also used some venison back straps instead of rump steak. All worked really well. Thanks again Josie.
Haha thanks Chris!! I’m stoked to hear you enjoyed this meal 🙂
So good I’m making it again (but not burning the cashews this time). A lovely fresh meal that my whole family enjoyed. Great idea mixing the zoodles with regular noodles.
That’s great to hear, Caroline! Hope it’s even better the second time around, minus the burnt cashews! 😊