This vegan soba noodle salad is made with crisp veggies, fresh herbs, and buckwheat noodles in creamy peanut sauce! It's easy to make and perfect for a summer lunch or light dinner.
This salad is perfect for salad haters.
I love all kinds of salads, but I really love cold noodle salads because while they're cool and full of veggies like regular old salads, they've also got...you guessed it...noodles! So they're really satisfying. I love making a meal of a good vegan noodle salad, especially during the warmer months.
I have rice noodle salad recipe that I shared a while back, and it's still one of my favorite summer dinners! It's light and refreshing and full of flavor.
But today's noodle salad is even more satisfying because it's made with hearty buckwheat soba noodles and a peanut dressing. It's got some edamame in there for protein, but you can absolutely add some extra protein like pan-fried tofu or tempeh.
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Ingredients You'll Need
- Soba noodles. Look for these in the international section of your supermarket, or at an Asian market. Use pure buckwheat soba noodles if you need to keep the recipe gluten-free.
- Peanut butter. Be sure to use natural (runny) peanut butter.
- Soy sauce. Gluten-free tamari or liquid aminos can be substituted if needed.
- Lime juice.
- Maple syrup. Another liquid sweetener such as agave can be substituted if needed.
- Garlic.
- Fresh ginger.
- Water.
- Red bell pepper. Orange or yellow bell pepper can be substituted.
- Red cabbage. Green cabbage works too!
- Carrots.
- Frozen shelled edamame.
- Scallions. Also known as green onions!
- Fresh basil.
- Fresh cilantro. Feel free to leave this out if you're not a fan.
- Sesame seeds.
How It's Made
Below is a detailed photo tutorial on how to make this dish. Scroll all the way down if you'd like to skip right to the recipe!
- Boil your soba noodles according to the package directions, then drain them into a colander and rinse them under cold water when they're done. Make sure you let them drain well. Nobody likes a watery noodle salad!
- While the noodles cook, make your dressing. Whisk the peanut butter, soy sauce, lime juice, maple syrup, garlic and ginger together in a small bowl. Thin the mixture with some water. You want it to be pourable, but still thick and creamy.
- Place the noodles in a large mixing bowl, along with all of your veggies and herbs.
- Add the dressing to the bowl.
- Give everything a toss to coat the noodles and veggies.
- Adjust any of the seasonings as needed, adding more soy sauce, lime juice, and/or maple syrup if needed.
Tip: Be sure to taste-test and make adjustments at this point, even if you already did so with the dressing, because the noodles will absorb and distribute some of the flavors.
- Divide the salad onto plates and sprinkle each one with sesame seeds.
- Enjoy your cold noodle salad immediately, or chill it for later.
Leftovers & Storage
Leftover vegan soba noodle salad will keep in an airtight container in the fridge for about 3 days. The sauce may thicken slightly during storage, so add a splash of water if needed.
More Soba Noodle Recipes
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📖 Recipe
Vegan Soba Noodle Salad with Peanut Dressing
Ingredients
- 1 (9.5 ounce or 269 gram) package soba noodles
- ½ cup creamy natural peanut butter
- 5 tablespoons soy sauce, plus more to taste
- 4 tablespoons lime juice, plus more to taste
- 4 tablespoons maple syrup, plus more to taste
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger
- ¼ cup water, plus more as needed
- 1 medium red bell pepper, sliced into strips
- 2 cups shredded red cabbage
- 2 medium carrots, julienne cut
- 1 cup frozen shelled edamame, thawed
- 2 scallions, sliced
- ¼ cup chopped fresh basil
- ¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro
- Toasted sesame seeds
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add the soba noodles and cook them according to the package directions.
- Drain the noodles into a colander and rinse them with cold water until completely cool. Let them sit in the colander for a few minutes to allow any excess water to drain.
- While the noodles cook, make the dressing. Whisk the peanut butter, soy sauce, lime juice, maple syrup, garlic and ginger together in a small bowl. Thin with water as needed until the dressing is creamy but pourable.
- Place the noodles into a large mixing bowl with the pepper, cabbage, carrots, edamame, scallions, basil, and cilantro.
- Pour the dressing into the bowl and toss the mixture to coat everything with dressing.
- Taste-test the salad and add more soy sauce, lime juice and/or maple syrup to taste.
- Divide onto plates and top each with sesame seeds.
- Serve.
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Yummmm. This is so good, and I love seeing all the color of the veggies!