Gluten-Free and Vegetarian

Yields: 4 people

Ingredients:

  • 6 cups Dashi (will need Kombu & Bonito Flakes, see recipe below)
  • 3 tablespoons miso paste
  • 2 six ounce pieces of wild caught salmon
  • 2 teaspoons of toasted sesame oil
  • 1/2 package of buckwheat soba noodles, cooked and cooled
  • 4 scallions, diced
  • 1/2 bunch of watercress, chopped
  • 1/2 savoy cabbage, thinly sliced
  • 2 carrots, thickly sliced on an angle
  • 4 shiitake mushrooms, sliced and lightly sauteed.
  • Sea salt and pepper
  • Gomasio for garnish

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. In a dutch oven or large heavy bottom pot, add 6 cups of water. Add in kombu and let sit for 15 minutes. Prepare the salmon.
  3. On a parchment lined baking sheet, place salmon skin side down and drizzle lightly with sesame oil. Using your hands, massage sesame oil into fish.
  4. Season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Bake at 350 for approx 8 to 10 minutes or until just cooked all the way through. While the salmon is cooking prepare the dashi. Once salmon is cooked, set aside.
  5. To make the dashi, bring the water and kombu to a boil. Just before it begins to rapidly boil, add the bonito flakes and remove it from the heat. Let it rest for another 10 minutes.
  6. After 10 minutes, strain out the kombu and bonito flakes using a fine mesh strainer, reserve the liquid. You can discard the kombu and bonito flakes.
  7. Dashi is complete, set aside.
  8. Prepare soba: Bring about 4 cups of water to boil, add soba and cook for 8 minutes. Strain and rinse with cold water. Set aside.

Prepare your veggies:

  1. Clean and slice mushrooms and lightly saute them over medium heat. Set aside.
  2. Watercress and cabbage will be added to the soup raw so you will only need to clean and chop these. Set aside.
  3. Reheat your dashi by bringing it to a simmer. Add carrots and cook for about 2-3 minutes.
  4. Turn off the heat and remove about 1 cup of the dashi and place in a cup or bowl. Stir in the miso paste, once dissolved add this back into your pot.
  5. Divide the broth among 4 bowls. Add in the soba, layer in your veggies: watercress, cabbage, and mushrooms, add some salmon (about 1/2 a piece per bowl), sprinkle with scallions and season with gomasio.
  6. Serve immediately.

Notes:

  • Kombu is rich with minerals, vitamins, protein, and dietary fiber.
  • Buckwheat soba is nutrient rich and low calories, it is high in B vitamins and rich in protein.