Sequestration Meal #476

 

I put this meal together from "nothing," i.e., I didn't have a clear plan in mind but just looked in my fridge and came up with something, and this is what it was: Soba noodles in a sweet and spicy gochujang peanut sauce with quick-stir-fried red cabbage and blanched broccoli, topped with sesame seeds.

The sauce and the general outlines of what I made were inspired by this recipe at Munch Meals by Janet, though I made some substitutions and left out the cilantro and edamame. It was really delicious! I'll admit to not using the gochujang as much as I should; it and miso feel like things I should have around but that I don't do a great job of using up before they dry up in my fridge. So this was great for that reason, but also, it was a nice change of pace from the lazy peanut butter ramen I've had too much of in the hard seasons. That's not to say that I couldn't have done this with ramen noodles instead of soba--I definitely could have, and perhaps one day I'll try gochujang in my spicy peanut ramen instead of chili garlic sauce--but this just seemed all around more intentional and wholesome, even though it was just a tiny bit more effort.

In this case, I actually had enough sauce for my noodles! I rarely feel my soba noodles are saucy enough but these definitely were. I'll keep this sauce recipe in mind even for solely that reason.

As for the photography, we're entering the season when photos of my dinner are often not as great as I would like because of the lighting, but I'll keep doing my best. Sigh.