A cold soba noodle salad with salmon & tahini sauce for your next weeknight dinner! The noodles are combined with crunchy spring vegetables and pan-roasted mushrooms, then tossed in a really flavorful tahini sauce full of lime and toasted sesame seeds, and served with a simple piece of seared salmon. It’s a meal that comes together quickly, tastes crisp and refreshing, and packs in lots of healthy ingredients. Definitely a great one to make all season long!
soba noodle salad with salmon & tahini sauce – the details
There’s essentially four components to this soba noodle salad – the noodles, the vegetables, the salmon, and the sauce.
If you’ve never cooked with soba noodles before, they’re thin Japanese buckwheat noodles that are typically either served cold or added to a hot soup. They’re nutritious and really flavorful, so I love incorporating them into my everyday meals as much as possible.
For this recipe, I’m combining them with crunchy snap peas, crisp radishes, vibrant carrots, thinly sliced scallions, and rich pan-roasted mushrooms. These vegetables turn the soba noodles into a simple, refreshing salad full of texture and flavor.
If you’ve made any of my other salmon recipes before, I typically always cook salmon the same way – crisp the skin first in a skillet, flip it, and finish cooking on the other side for just a few minutes until tender and buttery. Seasoned simply with just salt, this is my go-to salmon method that works every time. And that’s exactly what we’re doing here.
The best part about keeping the salmon so simple is that you can easily swap it out with any other protein you’d like. Seared steak would be great or even quickly sauteed shrimp.
You’ll toss the soba noodles in a delicious (and really simple to throw together) tahini sauce that also gets spooned on top of the salmon. It all comes together in the best way possible and makes for such a delicious, healthy lunch or dinner!
If you’re looking for more salmon recipes, here are a few favorites:
Seared Salmon with Roasted Potatoes & Paprika Aioli
Rye Salmon Cakes with Pickled Shallots & Caper Yogurt
Simple Salmon Dinner with Roasted Carrots
Soba Noodle Salad with Salmon & Tahini Sauce
cold soba noodle salad with crunchy spring vegetables, pan-roasted mushrooms, a creamy tahini sauce, and simply seared salmon
servings: 4
Ingredients
Tahini Sauce
- ¼ cup tahini
- ¼ cup soy sauce
- 3 tbsp fresh lime juice
- 2 tbsp honey
- 1 tbsp rice wine
- 2 tbsp neutral oil
- 2 tbsp sesame oil
- ¼ cup toasted sesame seeds
Soba Noodle Salad with Salmon
- 4 (6 oz) skin-on salmon fillets
- 12 oz Japanese buckwheat soba noodles
- neutral cooking oil
- ½ lb thinly sliced mushrooms
- kosher salt
- ¼ lb snap peas, halved lengthwise
- 4 radishes, thinly sliced on a mandolin
- 2 carrots, peeled + thinly sliced on a mandolin
- 2 scallions, thinly sliced
- 2 tbsp minced chives
Instructions
- Pat the salmon dry and let sit at room temperature for about 20 minutes.
- For the tahini sauce, combine the tahini, soy sauce, lime juice, rice wine, and honey in a mixing bowl. Whisk to combine. Drizzle in the oils, whisking until incorporated. Stir in the sesame seeds. Set aside.
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Cook the soba noodles according to the package’s instructions. Drain the noodles into a colander. Run them under cold water until fully cooled.
- Heat a 12” stainless steel skillet over medium-high heat. Add enough oil to generously coat the bottom. Once hot, add the mushrooms. Cook for 5-6 minutes until browned and tender. Transfer the mushrooms to a plate and season with a pinch of salt.
- Place the skillet back over medium heat and add a thin layer of oil. Once the oil is hot, carefully place the salmon into the oil, skin-side down.
- Sear for about 5 minutes, or until the skin is crisp and easily releases from the pan. Flip the salmon over and finish cooking on the other side, about 3-4 minutes longer, or until cooked to your desired doneness.
- Combine the noodles, snap peas, radishes, carrots, scallions, and mushrooms in a large mixing bowl. Drizzle in the sauce, reserving enough to spoon over the salmon. Toss well to combine.
- Serve the soba noodle salad with the seared salmon. Drizzle the remaining sauce over the salmon. Garnish with the chives.
shop the dish: soba noodle salad with salmon & tahini sauce
Delicious and healthy supper! quick to make as well and relatively low amount of dirty dishes, which is always a plus 🙂 you can put whatever vegetable you have available and it’ll still work I think, but the mushrooms add a nice dimension to the dish
So fresh and beautiful. Can’t wait to make these.
Thanks so much! I love making bowls like this for quick meals…it just packs everything into one dish. Enjoy!