Cold Noodles to Refresh Your Rotation, From Chilled Soba to Tiger Salad

Estimated read time 3 min read



You don’t have to give up the comfort of noodles as the season’s change. A quick rinse with cold water turns your favorite ramen, soba, or other pasta into a refreshing, chewy base for a salad or satisfying bowl. Browse these recipes for noodles dressed with flavorful accompaniments, sauces, dressings, and toppings to try on warmer days. Tossed with cucumbers, tomatoes, and zucchini, and hits of gochujang, sesame paste, yuzu, and more, these recipes are are our go-tos for cold noodles on a hot day.

Chilled Soba Noodle Salad with Yuzu Dressing

Emily Kordovich

In warmer months, Lucas Sin builds a huge variety of dressings for chilled noodles that pair excellently with a variety of vegetables using true East Asian ingredients like yuzu honey concentrate, yuzu kosho, and ponzu. Here’s a 30-minute example.

Tiger Salad with Green Tea Noodles

Greg Dupree / Food Styling by Chelsea Zimmer / Prop Styling by Christine Keely


Hetty McKinnon tosses cold buckwheat noodles in an umami-forward dressing with celery, cilantro, scallions, and a Thai chile for a satisfying, slurpable salad that’s ready in 20 minutes.

Chilled Noodle Salad with Carrot-Ginger Dressing

Linda Xiao / Food Styling by Margaret Monroe Dickey / Prop Styling by Christina Daley


Andrea Nguyen coats earthy, nutty soba noodles and fresh vegetables with a piquant carrot-ginger dressing in this 25-minute recipe.

Chilled Sesame Soba Bowl with Cucumber and Scallions

Eric Wolfinger

Riff on Robin Hollis’s 15-minute chilled soba bowl by adding vegetables, a fried or boiled egg, or meat for an easy meal.

Soba and Zucchini Noodle Salad

Photo by Greg DuPree / Food Styling by Margaret Monroe Dickey / Prop Styling by Christina Daley

This easy make-ahead dish from Ann Taylor Pittman is perfect for summer entertaining. Chill tender buckwheat noodles and crispy strands of zucchini “noodles” and serve with a pleasantly piquant dressing laced with both gochugaru and gochujang for a double hit of spicy Korean peppers mellowed by a touch of brown sugar.

Cold Saimin Salad with Soy-Ginger Grilled Pork

Victor Protasio

Sheldon Simeon tops his Hawaiian-style cold ramen noodle salad with slices of crispy pork shoulder, crunchy bean sprouts, tender egg ribbons, shredded nori, and slices of Japanese pickled cucumber. A cooling dressing of dashi, rice wine vinegar, and sake brings it all together.

Chilled Sesame Noodles

Emily Kordovich

Chilled sesame noodles have been a ubiquitous part of Chinese takeout for decades in New York City. Lucas Sin made this dish a signature at Junzi with a deeply flavorful, carefully layered sesame sauce made of pure sesame paste, aromatics, and fermented tofu. It’s finished off with chile oil.

Cold Peanut Noodles with Tofu and Red Peppers

© Quentin Bacon

Inspired by Chinese takeout, Grace Parisi adds chunks of tofu and sweet, crunchy slices of red bell pepper to silky sesame noodles.

Cold Peanut-Sesame Noodles

© Con Poulos

Andrew Zimmern was inspired by the cold noodles served in China’s Sichuan province when he developed this chilled egg noodle recipe with spicy Ma La oil, made with chiles, Sichuan peppercorns, and lots of spices.

Dan Dan Noodles

© Quentin Bacon

Toss cold chow mein noodles with a spicy dressing made with jalapeño, garlic, ginger, soy sauce, rice vinegar, Sriracha, sugar, peanut oil, and sesame oil for Joanne Chang’s version of the Sichuan noodle bowl.

Cambodian Noodle Salad with Sweet Pepper Dressing

© Sarah Bolla

Sarah Bolla mixes spicy, sweet, sour, and salty flavors in this light but bold salad of rice vermicelli noodles.



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