Purple Sprouting Broccoli with Fermented Black Beans and Soba Noodles
With the colder days all I want to do is eat, which is definitely no good for the waistline nor for my wardrobe. To stay away from the temptation, I make sure I cook something special for lunch. Most of the days it’s soup, it’s filling and I like a liquid lunch that is not too heavy but sufficient to see me through to supper time.
As lunch time approaches and the devil sits on my shoulder asking for something to nibble, I down tools and head to the kitchen. After opening and closing the fridge a couple of times not quite sure what to have, I moved to the store cupboard and found a tin of these fantastic Chinese fermented black beans and a packet of soba noodles. I obviously had forgotten about both of these.
I love these Chinese fermented black beans, they are packed with flavour and magically adds loads of flavour to any dish without too much effort. They are salty, so there is no need to add more seasoning to your recipe. I cooked the soba noodles, blanched the purple sprouting broccoli (that was all on it’s own in the fridge) and along with a few chillies and fresh ginger I made this delicious but very quick dish.
This recipe is perfect for a warm vegetarian lunch time offering or even a side dish served with steamed salmon, perfect and healthy!
- 200g purple sprouting broccoli spears
- 160g soba noodles
- 60g Chinese fermented black beans soaked in 60ml boiling hot water
- 2 banana shallots, peeled and sliced
- 1 large red chili, de-seeded and julienned
- 10g fresh ginger, peeled and finely julienned
- 2tbs roasted sesame oil
- 1tbs Mirin
- 1/2 tsp black sesame seeds
Prepare the broccoli spears by removing the older leaves and the hard bits of stalk. Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil and blanch the broccoli spears until tender, drain and refresh them in ice water. Alternatively steam the broccoli spears until tender.
Bring a large pan of salted boiling water to the boil and cook the soba noodles until tender, drain and refresh, once cooled toss them with a little bit of sesame oil and set aside.
Soak the fermented black beans in the boiling water, set aside.
Heat a large non-stick wok with the remaining sesame oil, wok the sliced shallots, ginger and chili until the shallots starts to take on a golden brown colour. Add the fermented black beans,water( used for soaking the beans) and the Mirin. Bring to the boil and add the soba noodles and blanched broccoli, wok until the noodles and broccoli are warm.
Serve immediately and sprinkle the black sesame seeds over the dish.
Serves 4
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You even make lunch sound like a feast! I’m not sure I’d ever have such things hanging around in the pantry but may be I should be more adventurous.
This is awesome! I am so glad that I found your blog!!! I bet I am going to learn a lot of stuff here. Thank you!
[...] Purple Sprouting Broccoli with Fermented Black Beans and Soba … [...]
love the plate presentation… just shows that such a simple dish can be made to be attractive.. and not just plumped into a bowl