These Cold Soba Noodle Bowls with Sriracha Tofu & No-Peanut Sauce are a refreshing, bold experience. The hearty soba noodles, the lingering spice, the fresh herbs, and the crunch from the veggies are a blissful combination.
I’ve been a little bowl-crazy this summer and I’m loving it. Each bowl has ~18 grams of protein, more if you sprinkle black sesame seeds or sunflower seeds on top!
Wait…Buckwheat is gluten-free?
Yes and it totally blew my mind, that soba noodles—made from buckwheat, are gluten-free. Just make sure your noodles are 100% buckwheat & labeled gluten-free.
Buckwheat noodles are protein-rich
A 2 oz (dry weight) serving contains 7 grams of protein.
This is a fabulous make-ahead/meal-prep recipe
You can make the sauce, tofu, noodles and do your veggie prep and store it all in the fridge until you are ready to eat. If you want to assemble ahead of time, please keep the sauce on the side.
Veggie Prep Shortcuts
- Pulse in a food processor or run through the salad shooter
- Carefully use a mandolin (cut glove recommended)
- Use pre-shredded carrots or a pre-cut slaw mix from the grocery store
My Veggie Mix
I use 4 cups of slaw-style veggies in these bowls.
Specifically: 2 cups shredded purple cabbage, 1 cup plus shredded carrots & a chopped red pepper which is about a cup.
Mandolin Safety
When I use my mandolin I always wear a cut-resistant glove. Please keep in mind that the cut-resistant glove makes it more difficult to cut yourself, but not impossible. This chain-mail glove makes it closer to impossible to cut yourself. If you have one of these nifty mandolin gadgets, please be very careful.
I recommend using pre-shredded carrots from the produce section of your grocery store. Otherwise, you can also use a Mandolin to thinly slice the carrots, or you can grate the carrots with a grater.
I like this Mandolin because it stands up on its own and it is stable. I haven’t used any of the fancy changeable blades it came with and I’ve never used the blades that twist up out of the base because I’m a little scared of them. Having a healthy fear of the Mandolin is good. I’ve worked in a lot of restaurants.
I’ve seen and heard too many things. Please be safe, especially if you prep your veggies with a madolin.
Seedy Business
Black sesame seeds, sunflower seeds and raw pumpkin seeds are fantastic things to sprinkle on your bowls to add interest & nutrients.
Herbs bring super-fly freshness
Bring the freshness! I love getting little hits of flavor from herbs sprinkled onto these bowls.
No-Peanut Sauce
You can use peanut butter instead of almond butter if you want.
You may have extra sauce. Dip some veggies in it & enjoy!
Salt sensitive?
If you are salt sensitive, go light on the low sodium soy sauce and/or use water instead of broth. Taste after making and add more soy sauce to taste. Alternatively, you could use no salt added almond butter.
Tofu
To make life easier, I recommend getting a tofu press, mine is light and vise-style. I went a long time without one and I often wonder why.
With this recipe, however, if you can find the Vac-u-packed, All-American Super Firm High Protein Tofu—you don’t even have to press it.
If you have Extra-Firm, water-packed tofu, this will work too. You’ll just need to press it first.
Just want to make sauce or tofu?
For just the tofu, click here.
For just the sauce, click here.
Let’s Make Cold Soba Noodle Bowls with Sriracha Tofu & No-Peanut Sauce
Soba Noodles
Make the soba noodles using the package instructions. Rinse with cold water, tossing until cold. This will cool down the noodles and keep them from clumping together. Drain & chill.
Sriracha Tofu
Preheat oven to 425°.
Cut tofu into desired even shapes, i.e. strips, cubes or triangles.
Mix up sriracha, oil, and low sodium soy sauce with a whisk or fork.
Once the consistency is even, dip the tofu into the sauce, covering it. Spoon or brush sauce on top if needed.
Transfer the sauced tofu to the baking sheet with space between the pieces of tofu. For less mess, you may want to use a sil-mat or piece of parchment paper on your baking sheet. There will be sauce left–this is good. You will use this sauce after you take the tofu out of the oven and flip it.
Bake tofu at 425° for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven, flip the tofu pieces over and brush or spoon the remaining sauce on them. I flipped them with my fingers after letting them cool a minute. If you go this route, please be careful.
Return to oven and bake for 9 – 12 minutes. Cook time is approximate, please watch your tofu. Small pieces take less time, bigger pieces take more time.
No-Peanut Sauce
Add all ingredients to a food processor or blender and process or blend until smooth.
To serve
I like serving this cold or with cold noodles and out of the oven tofu. It’s versatile.
Place noodles on one side of each bowl. Add veggie mix or slaw to the other side. Add 1/4 cup no-peanut sauce to each bowl, mix well coating the noodles and veggie mix. Taste and add more if or serve extra sauce on the side, if desired. You might have sauce left to enjoy with veggies later. Place tofu on top in the middle and garnish with herbs, scallions & black sesame seeds.
Enjoy!
Food prepping & leftovers are great with this recipe. You might want to keep the sauce on the side until ready to eat, but if it’s already sauced, it will still be super-tasty.
Soba Noodle Bowls with Sriracha Tofu & No-Peanut Sauce
Equipment
- Small food processor or blender
- oven
Ingredients
No-Peanut Sauce
- 1/2 cup almond butter full flavor, or if using no salt & no sugar added adjust maple syrup & soy sauce after tasting; add more to thicken sauce if desired; sub peanut butter if desired
- 1/3 cup low sodium soy sauce use low sodium tamari for gluten-free; If full sodium: sub out water for about 1/4 of the soy sauce to avoid super salty sauce
- 2 TBSPs sesame oil toasted or dark
- 2 TBSPs rice vinegar
- 2 TBSPs sambal oelek or chili paste more or less depending on heat-spice preference
- 3 TBSPs maple syrup more if you like a sweeter sauce
- 1" x 1" knob of fresh ginger peeled
- 3 cloves of fresh garlic peeled
- 1/4 cup water or vegan no-chicken broth
- 2 teaspoons vegan Worcestershire sauce
Sriracha Tofu
- 1 teaspoon high smoke-point olive oil such as non-virgin olive oil or avocado oil
- 3 TBSPs sriracha some srirachas are hotter than others you may adjust this quantity, make it your own
- 1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce use low sodium tamari for gluten-free; If full sodium: sub out water for about 1/4 of the soy sauce to avoid super salty tofu
- 1 block extra-firm or super-firm tofu (~16 oz) if your tofu is water packed, press it, removing as much water as possible. If your tofu is super-firm, vacuum packed, you don't need to press it.
Soba Noodles
- 8 oz container soba noodles buckwheat is gluten-free, please confirm that your noodles are labeled gluten-free & 100% buckwheat if you need this to be gluten-free
Veg Mix
- 4 cups shredded purple cabbage (2 cups), grated carrots (1 cup plus), and a chopped red pepper (almost a cup) or get a prepped slaw mix from the grocery store
Garnish Options
- bean sprouts
- chopped cilantro, basil, Thai basil, and/or mint
- sliced scallions
- black sesame seeds or whatever sesame seeds you've got and or sunflower seeds
Instructions
Soba Noodles
- Make the soba noodles using the package instructions. Rinse with cold water, tossing until cold. This will cool down the noodles and keep them from clumping together. Drain & chill.
No-Peanut Sauce
- Add all ingredients to a food processor or blender and process or blend until smooth.
Sriracha Tofu
- Preheat oven to 425°.
- Cut tofu into desired even shapes, i.e. strips, cubes or triangles.
- Mix up sriracha, oil, and low sodium tamari with a whisk or fork. Once the consistency is even, dip the tofu into the sauce, covering it. Spoon or brush sauce on top if needed.
- Transfer the coated tofu onto the baking sheet, placing it close but not touching. For less mess, you may want to use a sil-mat or piece of parchment paper on your baking sheet. There will be sauce left–this is good. You will use this sauce after you take the tofu out of the oven and flip it.
- Bake tofu at 425° for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven, flip the tofu pieces over and brush or spoon the remaining sauce on them. I flipped them with my fingers after letting them cool a minute. If you go this route, please be careful.
- Return to oven and bake for 9 – 12 minutes. Cook time is approximate, please watch your tofu. Small pieces take less time, bigger pieces take more time.
To Serve
- I like serving this cold or with cold noodles and out of the oven tofu. It's versatile.Place noodles on one side of each bowl. Add veggie mix or slaw to the other side. Add 1/4 cup no-peanut sauce to each bowl, mix well coating the noodles and veggie mix. Taste and add more if or serve extra sauce on the side, if desired. You might have sauce left to enjoy with veggies later. Place tofu on top in the middle and garnish with herbs, scallions & black sesame seeds. Enjoy!Food prepping & leftovers are great with this recipe. You might want to keep the sauce on the side until ready to eat, but if it's already sauced, it will still be super-tasty.
Notes
No-Peanut Sauce
You may have extra sauce. Dip some veggies in it & enjoy!Salt sensitive?
If you are salt sensitive, go light on the low sodium soy sauce and/or use water instead of broth. Taste after making and add more soy sauce to taste. www.planttestkitchen.comNutrition
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If you enjoyed this recipe, you might also enjoy
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- Quick Spanish Romesco Sauce
- Spring Rolls with Oven-Baked Sriracha Tofu
- Vegan Noodle House Ramen with Tofu
- Banana Coconut Chia Pudding
Did You Make Cold Soba Noodle Bowls with Sriracha Tofu & No-Peanut Sauce?
How did it go? What did you do for the veggie mix/slaw? Tell me about it in the comments section below. If this recipe went well for you, please leave a 5-star rating on the recipe card to help others find it.
This recipe is so tasty! I love it for the summer when I don’t want a warm meal that weighs me down. Yum.
Brilliant idea to use almond butter instead of peanut butter for the sauce! I’ve never thought of that. Totally going to try it. I also really like the way that you cut the tofu – so stackable and aesthetically pleasing. Beautiful photos and delicious recipe – thank you! P.S. I too am terrified of mandolins, maybe to the point of phobia, so I’ll likely just stick with the knife-and-knuckle technique for now.
Thanks For Sharing this amazing recipe. My family loved it. I will be sharing this recipe with my friends. Hope the will like it.
This was a little labor intensive to do all at once, but delicious served hot or cold. I would make the peanut sauce ahead of time to save time.