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When It’s Too Hot to Think About Dinner
Consider a soba salad with cucumber, carrots, hijiki, and greens
It’s getting very hot and sunny in Tokyo, and my walks outside are beginning to feel like afternoons by the poolside. On days like this, I feel a bit drowsy, and thinking about dinner becomes a chore that my brain isn’t quite ready to address.
When I don’t have the energy to think about something creative or new to cook, I have a few go-to easy and foolproof meals. I’m in need of something refreshing, light, and easy to make, easy to plate.
“What should we make for dinner?” I asked my sister.
“Soba salad?”
Soba salad is a summer favorite in my household because it’s refreshing and light — and a salad, but not really a salad at the same time. All it takes is combining some fresh crisp vegetables with some shredded leek-ginger chicken, served on a bed of cold and firm-to-bite soba noodles. Drizzled with a salty and not-so-sweet sesame sauce, it’s perfect to please almost all palates, whether your taste buds are accustomed to Japanese flavors or Western ones.
While there are lots of ingredients involved, it’s mostly just chopping, so if you can get an extra one or two pairs of hands in the kitchen to help out, there is no reason for the entire…
