In my quest to be healthier, I did sit down with a nutritionist about a year ago. I was hoping it was like a coaching program where she would oversee me for a few visits. It was only one visit but I tried to take notes and heed her advice (well, the best that I can). One of the biggest pieces of advice she had was to incorporate as much vegetables I can into my meals. I found it super hard to prep all these different vegetables to try to add into my already made meals…which would make the prepped veggies go bad.

Well one day, I saw a recipe for soba salad with it’s own ginger soy dressing so I did it. I don’t like a lot of veggies raw but wanted the colors so I quick pickled red cabbage and carrots – quick blanched spinach, etc. I add some fish cake as a protein/meat for the meal and I haven’t turned back since. I’ve been eating this for lunch at work for 2 weeks now and I still haven’t grown tired of it. I love all things savory and noodles so this really works out for me. And you can easily play up which veggies to use as toppings which keeps things fresh. Here’s a quick write-up of what I do. The dressing is the most important part of this recipe.

Healthy Vegetable Soba Salad

Ginger Soy Dressing (enough for 5 servings):

• ¼ C rice vinegar
• 3 ½ T vegetable oil
• 3 T soy sauce
• 2 T honey
• 3 t sesame oil
• 1 t grated fresh ginger

Salad Ingredients:

• Blanched spinach – throw in boiling water for 15-30 seconds, drain and squeeze out excess water
• Red cabbage, shredded and pickled (salt/sugar for 15 mins) – rinse and squeeze out excess water
• Carrots, shredded and pickled with cabbage
• Edamame, cook according to instructions
• Chikuwa, sliced (4-5 slices)
• Green Onions, sliced as garnish (a must for me)
• 1 bundle soba per serving, cooked according to package instructions

Other topping ideas: wakame, cilantro, dashi tamagoyaki, bell pepper slivers, cucumber slices

I like that it’s my own homemade dressing. I like that it’s a cold dish so I don’t have to heat it up in the microwave. It just ticks all the boxes for me.

Spam Musubi Rating (Yes I can rate myself!):