Sesame-Ginger and Cucumber Soba Noodles
Soba noodles tossed with cucumber, scallions and a light yet creamy sesame-ginger-tahini sauce. This would be a great vegan potluck dish.
Updated by Kathryne Taylor on August 29, 2024
Busy busy busy busy bzzzzz. That’s how I’ve been feeling lately. Juggling work deadlines and freelance projects, yoga class and happy hour, dinners with friends and family. Feeling busy can be overwhelming at times, but I feel unusually energized by my full calendar. I’d guess that the spring in my step comes from connecting with a few more friends in this new city. It’s nice to feel more connected with the community at large.
This recipe exemplifies how I eat when I’m busy, or really, how I eat all the time. I’m generally only feeding myself, so it’s hard to justify pulling out all the stops for every meal. I like to keep a big bowl of leftovers in the fridge and find that I’m only motivated to cook again once I’ve emptied it. It begs mentioning that I’ve consumed almost every serving of every recipe on this blog. In other words, these are dishes that I’ve tasted for days in a row and believe are worthy of being cooked in your kitchen.
The idea for this recipe came to me when I was dining at a sushi restaurant in Minneapolis. My friend Grace ordered an appetizer of sliced cucumbers smothered in a delicious sesame-ginger sauce. They paired wonderfully together. As I was ordering my soba noodles, I wondered why I hadn’t tried mixing ginger into my favorite tahini dressing recipe, and this recipe was born.
This recipe is a flexible one and I’ve left room in the instructions for you to adjust it to taste. Feel free to toss in additional vegetables, like carrot ribbons (sliced with a vegetable peeler), chopped bell pepper or whatever strikes your fancy. If you love the creamy sauce, you might also like this peanut soba noodle bowl. If you prefer a lighter sauce, try my colorful soba noodle & raw veggie salad. It’s a popular one that would go over well at a Fourth of July potluck.
Sesame-Ginger and Cucumber Soba Noodles
Soba noodles tossed with cucumber, scallions and a light yet creamy sesame-ginger-tahini sauce. This would be a great vegan potluck dish, but note that it is best when served promptly, as the salt will draw out the water from the cucumbers and dilute the flavors. Recipe yields 6 side servings.
Ingredients
- 8 ounces soba noodles (about 2 bundles) or spaghetti noodles of choice
- 1 large or 2 small English cucumbers
- 1 small-to-medium red bell pepper, chopped small (optional)
- 1 bunch scallions (green onions), chopped (about ¾ cup chopped)
- ⅓ cup tahini
- 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
- 1 tablespoon finely grated fresh ginger
- 2 teaspoons reduced-sodium tamari or soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
- Handful of fresh cilantro, chopped, plus extra leaves for garnishing
- Pinch of red pepper flakes (optional, for heat)
- ⅓ to ½ cup water
- 2 tablespoons sesame seeds (white or black)
- Salt, to taste
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of salted water to boil and cook the soba noodles until al dente, according to package directions (do not overcook them!). Drain and rinse under cold water, then set them aside.
- Use a vegetable peeler, or better yet, a julienne peeler, to slice the cucumber into long, skinny strips. Discard the super seedy interior strips.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the tahini, rice vinegar, ginger, tamari, sesame oil, cilantro and red pepper flakes (if using). Once blended, whisk in water until you reach your desired consistency.
- Toss the soba noodles in the sesame-ginger sauce (depending on how saucy you like your noodles, you may have some sauce left over). Toss in the cucumber strips, scallions, sesame seeds and extra cilantro if desired. Season to taste with salt or additional tamari until the flavors really sing. Garnish with a sprinkle of fresh cilantro if you’d like. Serve immediately.
Notes
Suggested equipment: Two tools worth owning: a Microplane for finely grating ginger (and citrus zest, chocolate, and Parmesan), and a julienne peeler for slicing long strips of cucumber (and apples, shoestring potatoes, etc.).
On leftovers: If your leftovers are watery, blame the cucumbers. Pour off some of the extra liquid and punch up the flavor with a light drizzle of sesame sauce and tamari/soy sauce. Leftover sesame-ginger sauce would make a light vegetable dip for carrots and bell pepper strips.
Freeze it: If you have leftover ginger, freeze it whole. When you’re ready to grate it for a dish, pull off a frozen chunk and grate it against a Microplane. No need to peel it, as the skin will stay on the top side of the Microplane.
Change it up: Spice up this dish with chili garlic sauce or sriracha if you’d like.
Make it gluten free: Buy gluten-free soba noodles and tamari.
2025 recipe edits: I removed the optional white miso (1 tablespoon) from the recipe since I greatly prefer it without. I also added optional red bell pepper, which offers some color and flavor.
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.
This looks so good! I have to make this, what a perfect quick and easy summer pasta!
Nice idea, especially for this season but good anytime I’m sure. I would love to give this a try with some tahini dressing and ginger. Sounds like a great match!
I literally eat cold soba noodles almost every week, and after reading this recipe, I’m never making them the old way ever again.
You are an inspiration and I can’t wait to try these this weekend.
This sounds so good right now!
YUM! I have book club this upcoming Tuesday and we all bring what we like to call “Pinterest food”. This will be my addition this month! :)
Hope you all loved the noodles!
Yes please! With temps in triple digits this weekend, I’d like to eat my weight in this salad.
This looks very cooling and tasty for summer! I also love keeping bowls of leftovers in the fridge for the week. Something to look forward to each day! Can’t wait to try this!
I’m kind of eating all day too.
And with the heat this weekend, I could sure use a HUGE bowl of this, stat!
I love dishes like this- vegetarian, flexible and so fresh and flavorful! The sesame-ginger-tahini sauce is especially mouth-watering :)
This sounds and looks so delicious. I’m such a sucker for tahini dressing! I look forward to trying it out! Thanks!
Looks and sounds so delicious. Thank you and I will make it soon.
Thank you, Liz. Please let me know how it turns out!
This sounds wonderful, Kathryne! I recently made a similar bowl with spiralized zucchini and shitaake mushrooms, but my favourite part was definitely the ginger sauce! I’m going to try your version next!
Count me in. What time should I be there? Oh, I’ll bring the prosecco as a bribe. I LOVE soba.
Cold soba noodles are the perfect weeknight summer dinner, and I can’t wait to try this one. That sesame tahini dressing alone! I could probably drink it straight.
Thanks, Ruthy! Let me know how the noodles turn out!
I am the same way with food! I love eating it all up before moving onto the next dish…and what better way to tell if it’s blogworthy than if I’m still craving it days later! I would totally crave these noodles, though, no question.
It looks so delicious and it’s vegetarian!
WORK IT GIRL. Busy times are crazy, but ultimately awesome if you ask me. Especially if you’re making tasty-sauced noodle suppers for fortification. Happy weekend to you miss. Hope you get to sit back and enjoy a cool drink here and there :)
I really, really have a thing for soba noodles these days and am so gonna try out this recipe. I’ll let you know how it turns out :-)
Thanks, Gunhild! Please do let me know how it turns out.
I recently fell in love with soba noodles and have twice made them for a peanut-noodle salad. I love tahini, however, so will definitely try soba noodles with your sesame-ginger sauce!
I soba, it is such a great staple noodle for miso dressings. I love buckwheat in any form. Peanut thai dressing is my next favorite dressing for this noodle
This sounds delicious. I too am trying to post things that I eat frequently and know are good, rather than the random dessert that I tried once or twice. I bet this would be great with spaghetti squash too! :-)
I love using tahini into my salad and noodle dressings! This is a perfect bowl of deliciousness for summer :)
This meal looks so fresh and delicious. I’m usually only cooking for myself as well, so I really appreciate a meal that I can throw together and keep in the fridge for a few days. It’s no nice not to have to cook one night when you’re tired and stressed!
Hear, hear! Bowl food is the best.
Yummmmm…this dish has me instantly craving Japanese food. And I love the idea of making a tahini sauce!
Thanks, Harriet! I love finding new uses for my favorite tahini sauce.
Super looking dish. Soba noodles are such fun to eat- slurp-tastic! Especially with a yummy sauce like this one.
Sadly I live with a ginger hater so I’ll have to save this one for when they’re not around.
This looks spectacular, I love soba noodles!
I really need to learn to eat like this when I’m busy!
This looks delicious and refreshing!!
This has refreshing and summer written all over it!!! I bet this would be a huge hit at a summer BBQ because it is so not your typical pasta salad. Yum!
This looks delightful! I’ve recently discovered the magic of soba noodles. I live in South Korea now so sometimes it’s hard to find the ingredients listed on my favorite American food blogs… but I think I can find all of these ingredients here so I can make this. Yay, can’t wait! :)
Thanks, Kaleena! Hope you love the recipe!
I just recently watched a video of three michelin star chef Alain Passard, in it he slightly cooks his cucumbers. I’m sure his technique would work wonders with this delicious recipe!
Oh interesting! I wouldn’t have thought to cook cucumbers at all. I’ll have to find that video.
This is such a fabulous summer dish! Yum!
I’ll admit, most of the dishes I make at home are one-bowl dishes. Who has time to clean various pots and pans and when it’s 95 degrees outside – forget about it! This dish has everything I want in one bowl, perfect for summer, yum!
One bowl dishes are the way to go! Thanks, Grace.
What would be a good protein to pair with this dish?
I was thinking some shrimp or scallops? I wanted a fish dish, but I don’t know what flavors would work with it.
I’m sorry, Michelle, I wish I knew what to suggest! I’m guessing scallops would be nice, but I don’t eat much meat so it’s hard to say.
I put half a can of tuna in (I also halved this recipe, I wanted to take it for lunch at work). I wouldn’t serve it to anyone for anything specia this way , but it made a nice, quick, and filling lunch for myself.
Glad you enjoyed the noodles, Cait!
I love this with grilled tofu or poached salmon! :)
Oh Kate, this is just gorgeous! I love that these recipes are ones that you have loved over and over again, so they are obviously worth it : )
I kept this recipe open in a tab until I could make it today. I ended up using black rice soba, so I switched the sesame seeds to white. Everything else I kept he same, and the sauce was delicious. This is the first time I’ve ever made soba (I have no idea, WHY), and I think it’ll become a staple. Yum! :)
Thanks, Dani! I’m so glad you enjoyed it. I’ve never seen black rice soba, but it sounds interesting! I’ll keep an eye out for it.
Just wanted to let you know that I made this the other day and it was incredible! I added a few more veggies though (red pepper and shredded kale) just so it could be a main course. I can’t wait to make it again.
Thanks, Nora! So glad you enjoyed it. I bet red pepper and kale are wonderful additions.
This looks great and I love not turning the oven on in the summer! Can’t wait to give it a try.
Thank you for the nice salad recipes. Have a great day.
Thank you! Made this tonight- it was my first time using soba noodles and this was just great! Can’t wait to try more of your recipes!
Thank you, Lisa! I’m so glad you enjoyed the noodles.
I made this for dinner tonight (only change was I added more veggies) and it was incredible. :) Thanks for the inspiration!
Kris, I’m so happy to hear it! Thank you for commenting to let me know.
I made this the other night without the miso and I think that probably makes a big difference. I’ll have to keep my eyes peeled for miso. I might try this another night with some fried tofu or maybe a little peanut butter added to the sauce.
Hi Kate! This recipe looks so good but I have one question- is it gluten free if there is soy sauce? I was led to believe soy sauce had gluten, but maybe I’m wrong…?
Hey! Good question. I have a little note about that in my recipe summary but it is easy to miss. Tamari (a Japanese variety of soy sauce) is usually gluten free, but soy sauce isn’t. White miso is usually gluten free. You would need to hunt down 100 percent buckwheat noodles for those to be gluten free. It should be pretty easy to find these ingredients at a well-stocked health store.
Love this recipe and the pictures are really awesome!
Thank you, Bill!
Was looking online for a recipe using soba noodles. Found this one, had all the ingredients on hand so gave it a try. Delicious and easy, too! Excited to try your other recipes – they all look great.
Awesome, thanks Diane! Glad you enjoyed it. People are crazy about my peanut soba slaw. You might like that recipe, too!
Made this for the fam tonight. All loved it. Thanks for another keeper!
Awesome! Thanks, Alex!
This was wonderful!
I added seasoned and cubed tofu… Perfect. Thanks!
Thanks, Crystine! Glad you enjoyed the noodles!
Made this last night and it was delicious. But the leftovers that stayed in my refrigerator overnight until lunchtime, which gave the flavors plenty of time to marinate and the dish to get cold, was phenomenal–the absolutely perfect hot weather lunch. Thanks for the GREAT recipe
Thank you very much, Deborah! Glad to hear it!
Oh. My. God.
That sauce is AMAZING! So, so delicious. I made my noodles with sliced carrots instead of cucumbers because that’s all I had and threw in some sesame seeds, and they were so delicious. I will definitely be making this again (and again, and again)!
Yay! Thanks, Vicky!
I just made this tonight and it was a great hit for my tastebuds. I did not have tahini, so I substituted it with a tablespoon of peanut butter and some yogurt. Another option could be avocado instead of tahini, ideas ideas! For those questioning white miro or not, get the miso. It makes a huge difference and nice savory edge.
Thank you very much, Lola!