Trying to be adventurous with food was the first thought that went through my head when I started this blog last night.  The next idea was to make it look amazing.  So, last night I ended up wasting my time trying to make it look cool instead of planning out the meal for tonight.  On the menu tonight:

Carrot Celery Broccoli over Cold Buckwheat Noodles with a Spicy Peanut Sauce

Ingredients:

·         Fresh Buckwheat noodles – I used about 1lb but probably could have used less for me and my girlfriend.

·         Celery – three stalks sliced on the bias

·         Carrot – three small pealed and shredded

·         Broccoli – one crown broken down to flowerettes

·         Green onions – leftover whites biased sliced

·         Garlic – 1 clove minced

·         Oil – 1 tbsp for sauté

Sauce – this is a lot more than needed for the recipe but its good with many different things.

·         Peanut butter – 1 cup

·         Rice vinegar – ½ cup

·         Soy sauce – ½ cup

·         Miren – ¼ cup

·         Sesame seed oil – ½ cup

·         Garlic – 3-4 cloves minced

·         Green onion – 3-4 greens only finely sliced on the bias

·         Ginger – 2-3 tsp fresh minced or 1 tsp dried powder

·         Cilantro – ½ cup minced leaves, about a small bunch worth of minced leaves

·         Sriracha – to taste, there is a lot of garlic in sriracha so if you want it spicy but not too garlicy take a clove or two out

·         Brown sugar – 1 tbsp

·         Hot water to thin the sauce out

Blanch and shock the broccoli.  Cook buckwheat noodles for 3-4 mins in boiling water and then shock them in ice water.  Toss in sesame seed oil so they don’t stick together.  For the sauce, whisk together all the ingredients until smooth.  Sauté the celery and carrot with the garlic and green onions in oil.  I tossed the noodles in the sauce just before serving, topped it with the vegetables and sprinkled a little more sauce on the top.  Garnished with a few of the fresh herbs used.

Simple, easy, and vegetarian…