A bright cold soba salad recipe with plenty of crunch from purslane, daikon radishes, bean sprouts, and fresh garden cucumbers. This salad wants to be front and center on your end-of-summer dinner table.
Confessional. These photos are some of my favorites of the summer. I threw the salad together and took them on the floor in my kitchen while frantically trying to pack last-minute things for the Boundary Waters, already late to pick up my eldest son from camp and to meet the rest of my family three hours from home.
Immediately after taking them, I dumped the plated servings back into the bowl (also pictured), threw a cover on it, wrapped an ice-pack-lined towel around it, and stuffed it in the back seat of my non-air-conditioned car. It bounced along in traffic with Kjell and me until we reached the shores of Lake Superior, waves crashing against the rocky beach, cool air coming off the water. I plopped the bowl down on a lakeside picnic table covered in seagull mute as Ole walked to a restaurant to pick up spring rolls. We ate off paper plates using our fingers because I forgot utensils. There were also stainless steel water bottles refilled from the drinking fountain in the Fitger’s building.
Seagulls continued creeping ever closer to our meal, even as my kids squawked and chased them off in between bites. I posted my earlier photo to Instagram while huddled there on the picnic table wishing I’d worn pants instead of shorts for the North Shore drive, the wind whipping my hair across my face.
My hair, which I’d cut myself three-plus hours earlier in a fit of lunacy. My family already departed, I sat staring at my waist-length locks in the bathroom mirror and deciding that, yes, I really did need to cut nine inches off immediately. Last year even, but right now would do. This was the first time in two years scissors and my hair had been friendly. I’m nothing if not low maintenance – or perhaps merely economical.
Why am I telling you all of this? Lately I’ve been having a hard time distancing myself from the things going on around me. I continuously feel inadequate. I think this is normal, especially when we are constantly bombarded by images of others seemingly doing more and doing it better, with more grace, more style, more everything. I don’t want to feed that.
Then there are these images born out of chaos. I literally held my breath to try to quell the anxiety that was rising in my throat and to calm the shaking of my hands as I took these. I remember tears welling in my eyes, cursing my stupidity as I tried to check this task off my list. I have yet to get tired of looking at them, the light reflecting through the glass the way it does at 3 p.m. in the afternoon in August when I should be somewhere else. I recognize the grace that was captured, the bits shining through even as we ate this hours later with our fingers, wiping them in the grass when we’d finished. That is what real life looks like.
I’m telling you as a reminder that there is beauty in the chaos of life and that a snapshot does not tell the whole story.
I eagerly picked up this bundle of purslane from one of my favorite stands at the farmer’s market not having a single idea what I would make with it, but anticipating it all the same. It is a succulent with a hint of a sour note, and you can eat leaves, stem, and flowers. All the same, I generally pick out the larger pieces of stem. If you can’t find it or want an alternative, micro greens or baby spinach will work well in this salad. The greens are accompanied by nutty soba noodles, fresh garden cucumber and bean sprouts, and the extra crunch of daikon and green onion.
If you like your food on the spicy side, while this has just a bit of kick from the pepper and wasabi, it is tempered with the honey and soy sauce. A spoonful of sambal oelek served alongside this is a worthwhile addition to bring the spice level back up. If you are afraid of all things spicy, you can pretend I didn’t say that.
Purslane and Soba Noodle Salad
Ingredients
Instructions
gorgeous! Putting this on my menu list!!
This post nearly had me in tears- the sheer real life of it all and your honesty in sharing that all is not that it seems in a snapshot. My life is a crazy town ride right now and I’m constantly deciding how to share and what to share.
Thank-you.
And now that I know what purslane is, I’m adding this salad to our menu plan. It will suit our Asian-flavour and salad loving family just fine.
Gorgeous post and beautiful photos. Yes we all feel this way. I am glad you personally shared your story of your day as we can have days filled with those feelings. I think it is part of life but for some reason I think today most often with all our social media outlets we life as perfect when looking at others lives and that is hard because though we know it’s not perfect we see it that way. Your noodle salad looks amazing!
Absolutely stunning and looks delicious! I need pics of the new hair cut! 😉
Thank you, Meredith. On the hair, it’s still long. I just can’t tuck it into my pants anymore.
Girl you slay me. This looks faboosh and I’m betting your hair does too ; )
I can’t tell you how this post rings so true with me today. Other than the hair cut (I chopped mine 4 years ago, and now am itching to grow it back out – ugh) this was exactly my feelings all day. Every mom at school drop off is more put together, every blogger is more organized, every, every, every. It’s maddening at times and I think we all need to remember to step back and just breath. These images are stunning and I just sat and stared at the first one thinking ‘wow..that’s a gorgeous photo’ and then read the post and completely felt every word. Lovely post, photos and salad!
Well, since my hair was past my waist, it’s still hanging halfway down my back, which feels lighter to me but looks pretty much the same to everyone else. Thank you for your kind words. I’m glad mine resonated with you.
I was tickled to find purslane popped up as a weed in my garden this year. I’m trying to let it re-seed itself for next year….We’ll see.
Funny, before I had read a word of this post, I was sighing over the beauty of the top image and lamenting the inadequacy of my own photography. Then I read, and well, I can so relate.
Thanks for sharing.
The photos and your words are beautiful. I know the feeling of inadequacy so well. In fact, looking at your gorgeous images here had it surfacing for me before I even read your words. It’s just too easy to compare. Thank you for sharing – I love your writing style and raw honesty. Can’t wait to try the salad – your preserved lemon Brussels sprout salad is still one of my all time favorites!
I would never use the word ‘inadequacy’ to describe anything you do, but that anxiety, the questions, the sense that we’re standing alone in the lunacy of our life and can’t ever compare to what anyone around us is doing is something that I live with daily. It’s been the reason behind shuttering my blog, taking a huge step back from all social media and basically disappearing. I feed my own anxiety enough. I certainly don’t need anyone else’ supposed life pouring gasoline on that fire. I think you’re awesome. And I always will. xoxo…..
This is just so pretty and fresh! STUNNING!
And yes, I want pics of the new cut too!
you and your pictures are incredible Shaina. I love the blue glasses and the salad looks incredible.
I love everything about this! So delicious, utensils or not.
Beautiful post, Shaina. And this salad, too. xo
WOW just what I was looking for. Came here by searching for soba noodle recipes
I love love LOVE purslane! I’ll take it all.
I added matchstick carrots, bell pepper and some thinly sliced scallion to the mix as I wanted more vegetables in the salad. There was plenty of dressing to accommodate them. Substituted pecans for the walnuts because that is what I had on hand. It was quite delicious.