Our Umi miso pesto is smooth and creamy and works beautifully as a dressing for boiled noodles. The word pesto is a little misleading but the cornerstones are there: umami in the form of miso instead of parmesan; herbs, in this case cilantro instead of basil; nutty richness through sesame oil instead of pine nuts or walnuts; and richness through sunflower oil instead of olive oil. I like just Umi noodles tossed in pesto as a whole meal, but it’s great with some sliced ripe tomato in season, wedges of roasted winter squash, or something more substantial like panfried chicken or tofu.
Read moreChilly Dandan Noodle Bowl
Even during this unfathomably hot summer, I can’t go more than a few weeks without my favorite noodle dish tugging at my appetite: dandan noodles. I love dandan more than anything: chewy noodles tossed with ground pork and richly flavored with sesame paste and Sichuan peppercorn. To satisfy my year-round comfort food cravings, I’ve created a variation designed for the heat. This cold dandan noodle bowl features chilled Umi Organic ramen noodles and swaps the traditional preserved greens for a light, raw pea shoot salad.
Read moreUmi Chop Salad V1
This one is super summery, light but satisfying! It features lettuce, crunchy vegetables, and my favorite trick, quick pickled radishes, which become a beautiful shade of Barbie pink. This takes almost no time to make, but the radishes are most beautiful if you let them sit at least an hour after making them. I make too many at once and eat them over a few days.
Read moreUmi Noodle Salad with Chicken, Tomato and Cucumber
This is a very literal, pared down riff on hiyashi chuka, the Japanese summertime classic of cold ramen noodles in a sesame dressing. We’ve made the dressing for you! All you need is a bit of leftover chicken (or panfried tofu or mushrooms!), a cucumber, a handful of tomatoes, green onion, and if you’re anything like me, chili oil. I dare you to take more then 3 minutes to boil and assemble this whole thing! It’s instantaneous and wonderful. A mid-summer classic.
Read moreUmi Noodle Salad with Kimchi and Sardines
Cooking has been brutal with the temperature inside my home at 95 degrees. One thing that is helping me enormously is the ease of our Noodles with Miso Sesame Sauce, and cold noodle salads generally. I put water on to boil, rinse and prep a few veggies (or in this case, just open a jar of Choi’s kimchi!), walk away, sit in front of our box fan, come back once the water is sputtering, boil the noodles for 2 minutes, toss with sauce, top with toppings, and that’s it! It’s as low maintenance as a sandwich and infinitely more texturally interesting and fun to eat.
Read moreNaomi's Ramen Salad with Kimchi and Anchovies
I’ll be honest: This recipe Naomi shared with us is for a committed home cook. Why? Because the first step is to make shio dare, a flavor base used more often as the foundation for a bowl of hot ramen soup. If you don’t mind a small project, jump over to the shio dare recipe, make a batch, and then make this, which might be my favorite cold noodle salad that exists! (Once the shio dare is made, this is a literal breeze.) Naomi Molstrom goes all the way in her commitment to crunch. The chewiness of Umi noodles is so outstanding in this dish, and the contrast with all the crunchy vegetables makes this a textural delight.
Read moreMinty Noodle Salad with Peas, Peanuts and Lime Fish Sauce Dressing
Katherine Deumling of Cook with What You Have shares her recipe for an Umi noodle salad with peas, peanuts, cilantro and mint. It’s really perfect. It takes almost no time to cook (a gift on very hot days) and tastes refreshing and flavorful. This is your new go-to for noodle salad daze and days.
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