CILANTRO PISTOU SOBA + GARLIC PRAWNS
CILANTRO PISTOU SOBA NOODLES
#SIAintheKitchen
I'm all about those easy weeknight dinners. I tend to make meals that are super quick with a formula that looks like this: carb + pesto/pistou + veg/protein. Basically, you cook the carb (ie. pasta or rice) and while that's cooking, prepare the sauce or dressing and any added proteins or veg. In the case, I prepped and cooked everything in just under 30 minutes! Simple, easy, filling. You might need to add this soba noodle salad with avocado cilantro pistou + garlic prawns to your next dinner roster.
Before I dig into the recipe, I wanted to give you a little pesto vs. pistou breakdown. What is the difference!? Back in my old blog, I stated the difference but here's a quick refresher.
Pesto - a blended herb sauce consisting of an herb, typically of the basil variety, olive oil, garlic, lemon pecorino cheese, and pine nuts originating from Genoa, northern Italy.
Pistou - a blended herb sauce similar to pesto with the absence of pine nuts, originating from the provencal region of France.
Honestly, the inspiration for this dish stemmed from some leftover cilantro (pun intended!) I had lying around. I had made a batch of cilantro pistou to go with a different dish and had a number of stems and stalks leftover that I did not want to go to waste. A lot of people will discard the stems and just use the leaves... but there is SO much flavour in the stems that it can be easy whipped up into something delicious. Think sauces, herbed breadcrumbs, herbed oils, pestos - the options are practically endless! So think twice about throwing those bad boys out.
Let's get cooking! People ask me all the time how I have time to cook all the meals whilst having two (basically) full-time jobs, training for pole dancing, traveling the world and balancing a social life. The answer is efficient time management. The main bulk of the recipes posted on my blog are well under an hour - and that's because I really don't have time since I'm juggling everything on my shoulders. However, I do place an importance on meal prepping and bringing a lunch to work because 1) I want to know exactly what is going in my food, 2) control what is going in my body and 3) it's hella expensive to eat out everyday! Food prepping isn't hard - you just need to have a plan in place to execute it successfully.
This recipe is quick, easy, wildly flavourful and extremely adaptable. The creaminess from the avocado, the punch of flavour from the garlic and cilantro, toothsome and nutty soba noodles and the buttery and garlicky pungent prawns - yum!
Enough talk - let's really get cooking!
SOBA NOODLE SALAD WITH AVOCADO CILANTRO PISTOU + GARLIC PRAWNS (serves 4)
4 bundles of buckwheat soba noodles
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped and packed tightly
1/2 lemon, seeds removed, juice only
3 garlic cloves
1 avocado, pitted
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
salt + pepper, to taste
2 tbsp butter
8 cloves garlic, minced
1 lb tiger prawns, fresh and de-shelled
salt + pepper
chili flakes
In a medium pot of boiling salted water, cook the buckwheat soba noodles according to packaged directions, about 5-6 minutes. Drain and set aside.
In a food processor, add the cilantro, lemon juice, garlic cloves, avocado and extra virgin olive oil and blend until smooth. Add salt + pepper to taste.
In a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, add the butter. Once melted, add the garlic cloves and chili flakes and saute until fragrant and starts to lightly brown. Add the tiger prawns, season with salt + pepper and cook for 3-4 minutes or until the prawns are pink.
Toss the soba with the avocado pistou and topped with the garlic prawns.