Japanese Chilled Buckwheat Noodles: Spilled Milk #117

Super hot days call for really nice cold dinners. Put this in your summer rotation.

It’s hot. It’s humid. And while no-cook meals are fun, sometimes I like a cooked chilled meal with all the sophisticated tastes, textures and contrasts that the world’s classic meals afford.

Zaru soba is one of those dishes. There are many versions, and this one is just the one that I like and have come to cook most often. My sauce is a tad more complex than the traditional tsuyu that is served with these noodles, and rather than just scallions or scallions/ginger, I love the mixture of daikon, scallion and togarashi. Shichimi togarashi is also known as Japanese seven spice, a blend of red chili pepper, sansho pepper, hemp seeds or poppy seeds, sesame seeds, ginger, citrus peel, and nori. Mine comes from the Japanese Pantry, which has some amazing Japanese artisanal ingredients. In fact I bought everything I used in this recipe from there. I have no business relationship with them — it’s just where I actually shop.

Bottom line, this chilled dinner is so delicious it will become a regular part of your summer kitchen output.