Soba noodles with eggplant and mango – Plenty

A few months ago I bought the cookbook Plenty of Yotam Ottolenghi. This is my second cookbook from the London caterer. This time, a vegetarian cookery book with the subtitle “enough vegetables to cook very tasty. In 2006, Yotam called “a vegetarian * column” writing for the Guardian Weekend magazine.

Now he is himself not a vegetarian, but Ottolenghi’s famous for what they do with vegetables and grains and their special salads. So he was asked to apply this knowledge to the readers of the Guardian to share. Plenty in the cookbook, these (and new) recipes combined.

The cookbook contains many unusual recipes with vegetables and grains as the base. You can find European, Oriental and Asian influences in the soups, salads, pastas and side dishes. For a vegetable lover like me, will provide many new inspiration. My meat-loving roommate I do a little less fun with lentils and eggplant. But he is a few days in Scotland, so that gives me great opportunity to get some “strange” things to try, as cold buckwheat noodles with eggplant and mango.

• Is it really “a vegetarian column? There’s never neither fish nor fowl in a column?

Ingredients:
| Cooking time 20 minutes | recipe for 2-3 people |
For the dressing: • 50 ml rice vinegar • 20 g caster sugar • pinch of salt • 1 clove garlic, minced • 1 / 4 fresh red chilli, seeds removed and finely chopped • 1 / 2 teaspoon toasted sesame oil • zest and juice of 1 / 2 lime
• 1 eggplant, cubed • sunflower oil • 150g soba noodles • 1 small ripe mango, diced • • 20 g basil 20 g coriander • 1 / 2 red onion, thinly sliced ​​• if 1 / 2 block tofu, cubed

Preparation:

1. First make the dressing. Heat the vinegar in a saucepan with sugar and salt just 1 minute until sugar is dissolved. Remove the pan from the heat and add the garlic, chilli and sesame oil. Allow the dressing to cool and stir in lime zest and juice.

2. Heat a splash of sunflower oil in a wok or frying pan and fry the eggplant cubes. Spoon the eggplant cubes and golden brown on a paper towel and sprinkle with salt.

3. Cook the noodles in boiling water until al dente. Drain the noodles in a colander and rinse with cold water. Shake the water as much as possible and pat them dry in a clean tea towel.

4. Mix the noodles with the dressing, mango, eggplant, onion and spices. You can just leave the salad, then mix the flavors. Bake the tofu in a crispy layer of oil and finally add to the noodles.