Quinoa Soba Noodle Salad with Bok Choy & Sesame

This autumn/winter I planted some bok choy for the first time, it grew quickly and beautifully into big gorgeous green leafy bunches of bok choy. However, I actually wasn't that sure what to do with it - because I've never been a big fan of it. I find it's a bit of a fine line between delicious crunchy fresh bok choy and slimy pieces of goo that get all stuck up in your teeth. It occurred to me that since I prefer it only super lightly cooked - maybe I shouldn't be cooking it at all? Turns out it makes a beautiful, crisp and fresh addition to an Asian salad. So - ingredient one: a big beautiful bunch of bok choy picked fresh from my garden.

Now - enter my next batch of ingredients. I have to say, I get plenty of emails from PR companies trying to get me to push products - as do most bloggers. I virtually never even bother to answer any of them, because I'm very picky. But the other day I got one from Spiral Foods, which was much more up my alley. They sent me a box of lovely foods to cook with:

It was quite an exciting piece of mail! I've got quite a few dishes floating around in my brain to make with all these lovely things, but the first thing I had to go for was the lovely packed of Quinoa Soba noodles. I've never had them before so I couldn't wait to try them out in combination with my beautiful home grown bok choy. The dressing is simple for 2 reasons - firstly because of the lovely flavour of the noodles, and secondly because the star of the dressing is the Spiral Plum Vinegar. Yum!

Quinoa Soba Noodle Salad with Bok Choy & Sesame

Ingredients
1 packet quinoa soba noodles
1 large lebanese cucumber
1 bunch of bok choy
1-2 tbsp pickled ginger sliced, sliced (to taste, it depends how much you like pickled ginger)
4 tbsp plum vinegar
1 1/2 tbsp sesame oil
1 tsp soy sauce
1 1/2 tsp white sesame seeds
1 1/2 tsp black sesame seeds

To Make
1. Cook the quinoa soba according to the directions on the packet, then drain and rinse with cold water.
2. While the noodles are cooking, slice the cucumber into strips and finely chop up the bunch of bok choy.
3. Combine the cold rinsed noodles in a big bowl with the cucumber, bok choy and pickled ginger. 
4. Combine the plum vinegar, sesame oil and soy sauce in a jar and shake to combine. Toss the salad with the dressing and sprinkle generously with black and white sesame seeds.

Serves 4.

These products were sent to me by Spiral Foods.

I've submitted this recipe to the Vegan Virtual Linky Potluck - click here to see the other entries.