Recipe Review: Soba Noodle-Vegetable Salad (sorta) by Ellie Krieger

Recipe Review will be a sporadic column of my take on established recipes that I find. I say sporadic because many times I'll throw together a salad (boring) or graze on a bunch of random things in my fridge, which obviously doesn't really necessitate its own post.

First off, I will say that Ellie Krieger is not one of my Food Network favorites, by a long shot. She's a bit too perky about being healthy and I'm not 100% convinced. On the plus side, she's not Sandra Lee. I bought Ellie's book "The Food You Crave" and it's got a good number of recipes that I'm surprisingly excited to try out.

This one, the Soba Noodle-Vegetable Salad (recipe courtesy of the Food Network website), was an easy choice because I had about 90% of the ingredients in my apartment already. I say "sorta" in the title because I took a few liberties with the ingredients, mainly based on my preferences:

- Thai rice noodles from Trader Joe's, instead of soba noodles
- Green pepper, instead of a Red pepper
- No mint leaves (they looked weird at the supermarket, figured I could go without)
- Mixed spring greens, instead of Bibb lettuce (it's what I already had in the fridge, plus I didn't really care about having "cups" for the finished salad)
- Added 1 julienned cucumber and cherry tomatoes

All that said, I did maintain the original recipe for what I thought was the best part, which is the dressing. Almost all of the dressing components are regular pantry items for anyone making Asian food, and are good to have around in the kitchen. This is a great, full-flavored dressing that I think I'll be using for regular salads in the future.

Sorry, no photo, but I will say that this is a colorful, healthy, and filling salad that is perfect for the summer. You can use pretty much any veggies you want, which is good for getting rid of random strays in your fridge. If you want to bulk up this salad with some protein, I'd recommend some grilled chicken with peanut sauce, or teriyaki tofu, if you're into that sort of thing.

I had a bowl of this for dinner last night, and the rest for lunch today. I'd recommend keeping the dressing and salad separate until the last minute if you are planning on eating at a later time (such as lunchtime at work, or at a picnic). It helps to keep the veggies from getting soggy and oversaturated with the dressing.

Hope you like it!