Oodles of veg stir fried soba noodles

Packed full of goodness for those in need of a lift… and details of Monday's Substack chat

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Hello my friends. I’m writing this to you wild haired and bleary eyed from bed, because this is the week that my whole family has gone down with a nasty virus. I’m going to keep the details of that to myself, and this newsletter brief, because energy reserves are super low, but I wanted to say hi, and share this simple, delicious, veg-packed noodle dish that I made for us last night because my body has been howling for a rainbow of plants, and this really delivered in terms of taste, satisfaction and feeling like I was doing us some good. I know loads of people are ill right now, so sending solidarity and noodles to anyone reading who’s also under the weather…

It irks me so much to say that due to this week being a complete write off, this month’s ‘Something For the Weekend’ recipes will be slightly delayed. Despite being INCREDIBLY excited about the gorgeous recipes I’ve got in store for you this month, I haven’t been able to finish the shoot this week (because I’m just a one-woman team, and I’m a woman down), so they will be dropping next week rather than this Friday, but don’t worry, that’s OK - because they aren’t Halloween related. And they will be worth the wait, I promise.

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I’m going to be mainlining these noodles and pints of elderberry syrup, so that come Monday evening, I’ll be spruced up and ready to chat all things Substack in this one-off class hosted by Farrah Storr and featuring two fellow writers I greatly admire, Emma Gannon and Poorna Bell. We’ll be talking from personal experience about how we’ve all built our own newsletters and incredible communities (that’s you amazing people) here on this platform, and if any of you are interested in starting/building your own newsletter and hearing from us, it would be fantastic to see you there. I’m so excited about getting the chance to connect with some of you over Zoom, so please do sign up here and come and say hi if this is something that interests you.

A rainbow of goodness - go digging in your fridge my friends

Now onto oodles of veg noodles. This recipe was thrown together from all of the vegetables I had lurking in my fridge, and the fact I really wanted some slightly sweet, spicy noodles to slurp them up with. I’m really loading up on veg at the moment, and am actually considering writing a newsletter about my winter food shopping habits/produce/dry store lists for you guys, so do let me know if that’s something you’d like? I took some inspiration from the ‘Simple Veggie Yakisoba’ recipe in brilliant Pippa Middlehurt’s latest book ‘Simple Noodles’ (you can buy the book here, it’s full of really accessible, tasty noodle dishes), but I added in ginger, garlic and chilli, none of which she uses, because I needed my sinuses clearing and my tastebuds blasting.

Because I didn’t have any yakisoba sauce (a thick, dark, sweet-savoury sauce used to make yakisoba in Japan), I dug out some Okonomi sauce I bought from Sous Chef a while ago, and added a splash of soy. If you don’t have that, or shop bought yakisoba sauce to hand, you can make your own version of this thick, fruity, umami-packed sauce using a mixture of oyster sauce, ketchup, Worcester sauce, soy and sugar. This recipe looks good and is similar to what Pippa suggests in her recipe too.

Lots of simple but very good noodle dishes in this book

This was very much an unplanned fridge raid, which means that it is totally flexible in terms of what you can put in here, and quite honestly, anything goes. You’ll see I used two sorts of cabbage, green beans, tenderstem broccoli and spinach - but this is not essential! If you don’t have tenderstem, use normal broccoli chopped, if you’ve no green beans, don’t sweat it. The key is that there should be a diversity of plants and colours. I adore the nutty buckwheat soba noodles by Yutaka, but if you don’t have soba noodles, use egg, ramen or even rice noodles in their place. Or you could go wild and use spaghetti, which might seem like a heinous suggestion, but perhaps this banging beef stir fry made with broken lasagne sheets might change your mind…

Want to add some smoked, fried tofu? Go ahead. Don’t have any chestnut mushrooms? Dig out some dried mushrooms and soften them in boiling water for a few minutes, then throw them in along with the sauce and a splash of their umami-packed stock. You get the idea. It’s about being resourceful, creative, and using what’s in your fridge to give yourself and whoever you’re cooking for a boost of much-needed veg. This is how I cook most of the time for my family, and here’s what I did, I hope you enjoy.

Signing off for now, with love and lozenges. xx

Oodles of veg stir fried soba noodles

Serves 2

You will need the biggest non-stick, heavy bottomed frying pan you can find. I used a wok but a skillet is better, you want surface area

An assortment of mixed veg. Here’s what I used, but you do not need all of these things, so mix it up according to what you have:

2 tbsps neutral or toasted sesame oil
1 red onion, finely sliced
1 fat clove of garlic, peeled and finely sliced
2cm knob of ginger, peeled and finely sliced
1 red chilli, finely sliced
1 large carrot, peeled and julienned or finely shredded
a wedge of red cabbage, finely shredded
a wedge of sweetheart/hispi cabbage, finely shredded
4 stems of tenderstem broccoli, stalks finely chopped, florets broken down
a handful of green beans
a handful of baby spinach leaves, washed
four chestnut mushrooms, finely sliced
two bundles of soba noodles (about 200g)

For the sauce
5 tbsps of Okonomi mixed with 2 tbsps soy sauce OR Yakisoba sauce
Or follow this recipe to make your own

To serve (optional)
1 tbsp picked ginger, finely chopped
A shake of sesame seeds or furikake seasoning
2 spring onions, finely chopped

1. Start by getting all of your veg chopped and prepped and ready to cook, and if you’re making your sauce yourself, do that now too. You can also cook your soba noodles so they’re ready to go. Bring a pan of water to the boil, slip them in and stir, cook for three minutes and then drain and rinse under cold water. Sprinkle with a little sesame oil and toss to keep them from sticking together.

2. Heat the oil in your pan and add in the onion, garlic, ginger and chilli, swirling around in the oil for a minute or two to infuse the flavours, then add in the carrot, cabbage(s), broccoli stalks and florets and green beans and stir fry for a few minutes. Now allow them to sit in the pan without moving for a couple more minutes, to give them a bit of a char, then stir again to soften and mix well. Add the mushrooms and spinach and stir fry for a few more minutes, until the mushrooms are softening.

3. Add the noodles to the pan, and toss to tangle with all the vegetables, then add the sauce and combine well to coat everything until glossy and seasoned. If things are looking a little dry, add a small splash of water to loosen. Now, taste and check for seasoning, adding a little salt/soy and pepper if you feel it needs it, I use some ground white pepper here. Remove from the heat, tong into warmed bowls and top with the spring onions, pickled ginger and sesame seeds/furikake, if using.