Vegan MoFo: Grapefruit-Soba Noodle Salad

I have a confession.

I love, love, LOVE grapefruit. 

I love it so much I don't even put sugar on top! 

Every year as it starts to get cold outside, I trade it my navel oranges and granny smith apples (fall fruits) for my clementines and grapefruits (winter fruits). With the grapefruits comes the one inevitable recipe: Grapefruit-Soba Noodle Salad.

This recipe came from the January 2009 issue of Vegetarian Times, and I've made it so often that the magazine page it once resided on is now half sticky and covered in juice stains. I'm sure I'll get around to putting it on a recipe card eventually... It comes with a peanut sauce, but I have a confession...

I HATE peanut sauce. I've tried 15 million different recipes and tried it on all sorts of things, but it gags me. It's just too rich or too vinegary or too goopy. I can't stand it. That's why every time I make this recipe, I don't make the peanut sauce...

Anywho, the recipe calls for radishes. Radishes are alright, but they're not a vegetable I would pay for. Instead, I used daikon. Daikon is radish-like, but it's sweeter and milder. It's also more fun to cut up! The key to picking out a good root o' daikon is picking one that is nice and firm. I had to wade through all the floppy ones up front to get a good one from the back (I love where this conversation is going!). So after cutting the ends of it, I peeled it with a vegetable peeler, then I cut it into matchsticks. It's flavor was perfect in this recipe. On a small note, aside from the fact that it is super low in calories (18 cals in one cup! Yay vegetables!), it contains about 30% of your daily vitamin C! Awesome. The label on it had a recipe for some shredded daikon salad. I think I might make a bowl with the little bit of root I have left over. I'll tell you how it is. :)

Oh, and buckwheat soba is a good source of protein. One serving of soba has about 7 grams of protein. The VT nutritional info is mostly correct, though it actually has more protein in it that it states, even without the peanut sauce!

The mystical root of mystery that is daikon.

So, although this recipe is from Vegetarian Times, I'm going to repost it here (it's available for free on the website already) with a link back to the original. My picture is slightly different than theirs (I added celery, subbed daikon, left off the cilantro, and forgot to take a picture of the sesame seeds), but I've many the original plus many variations and they've all been awesome. To have a step-by-step picture guide on how to supreme a grapefruit, click here.

Grapefruit-Soba Noodle Salad:
Peanut Sauce:
¼ cup seasoned rice vinegar
2 Tbs. smooth peanut butter
1 Tbs. low-sodium soy sauce
2 tsp. agave nectar
2 tsp. sesame oil
1 tsp. chili oil
1 clove garlic, minced (1 tsp.)

Noodle Salad:
1 small red bell pepper, sliced (1 cup)
5 radishes, thinly sliced (2/3 cup)
5 green onions, sliced (1/3 cup)
6 oz. snow peas
8 oz. buckwheat soba noodles
2 tsp. canola oil
8 oz. seasoned tofu, cut into 4 slices
3 grapefruit, supremed

To make Spicy Peanut Sauce:
1. Purée vinegar, peanut butter, soy sauce, agave nectar, sesame oil, chili oil, and garlic in blender or food processor until smooth (or use a whisk and some elbow grease... you have less to clean up that way).

To make Soba Noodle Salad:
2. Toss together bell pepper, radishes (do the daikon!!), and green onions in large bowl. Bring large pot of water to a boil, add snow peas, and cook 2 minutes. Transfer snow peas to bowl of ice water with slotted spoon; drain, and add to vegetables. Return water to a boil.
3. Cook soba noodles in same pot of boiling water according to package directions; drain, and rinse under cold water. Drain again, and set aside.
4. Heat oil in skillet over medium-high heat. Add tofu, and cook 1 minute per side, or until lightly browned.
5. Toss tofu, grapefruit supremes, and soba noodles with vegetables. Divide among 6 bowls, drizzle with Spicy Peanut Sauce, and sprinkle with cilantro and sesame seeds, if desired.

Here's my sideways-assed photo:

Blogger wouldn't let me flip it and I was getting seriously annoyed, so I've decided to just post it anyway! It is a cold noodle salad, and it tastes better once it's sat in the fridge for awhile, but I'm sure it would be just as good if the veggies were stir-fried. I might have to make that variation later...

Here's the link to the original recipe: Grapefruit-Soba Noodle Salad with Spicy Peanut Sauce. 

Have a great evening!