Noodle bowls”¦do you love them as much as I do? If so, you’re going to want to make this Coconut-Ginger Shrimp Soba Noodle Bowls recipe I came up with to satisfy my most recent noodle bowl craving. It’s comforting and satisfying, and yet it tastes fresh and healthy at the same time. It will hit the spot on an evening like we’ve been having lately, when temps are dropping into the crisp Fall air I love. We still sit on the deck to eat dinner, but there’s always the debate: do I need to grab my fleece or will I tough it out and let the chill of the air permeate while I use warming food like these noodle bowls to keep me toasty?
As I was getting ready to make dinner a few weeks ago, I wasn’t even intending to create a recipe for Fresh Food Bites, but as I was rifling through my fridge and cupboards to figure out how to serve the shrimp I already had planned, it occurred to me that I had everything I felt were necessary to create a killer noodle bowl. It turned out great, so I was ‘forced’ to make it again to iron out the ingredient amounts and shoot the photos, and voilà , these Coconut-Ginger Shrimp Soba Noodle Bowls came to life.
I love the spontaneity of cooking: intentional ‘playing’ with food to create new recipes and flavor combos. It’s so relaxing for me! This isn’t always super convenient what with having children around the table, but then again, if a cooking experiment is a total flop, there’s always grilled cheese sandwiches to fall back on. Yeah, this quick and easy meal happens in my house too!
Back to the noodle bowls. One thing I love about noodle bowls (or any soup, for that matter), is that you can pack a bunch of nutrition into each bowl. Because I have had a lot of kale around lately (it’s in season, tastes great, and is so nutritious!, blah, blah, blah), I decided it would be my “green”. I almost always add a leafy green to soups and stews. Ginger is one of my favorite flavor-boosting ingredients, and I can’t think of an Asian-inspired dish I make where I don’t use ginger. Plus, it tastes great with coconut milk, which I thought was a ‘must’ in these noodle bowls, especially with the shrimp. The combo is just too good!
Soba noodles are one of my favorite Asian noodles to use. They work well served under a stir-fry, dropped into a soup, or chilled down to use in a cold Asian noodle salad. Because they give off a lot of starch when cooked, it’s important to rinse them under cold water right after the post-cooking draining step. This will help rinse away the starch so the noodles will stay separated in the dish you’re putting them in.
Another tip with soba noodles is to make sure you buy soba noodles that are made with 100% buckwheat. Some brands of soba noodles are made with a combination of buckwheat and regular wheat flour and these won’t be as nutritious (because the wheat is usually refined white flour). Plus, if you need to eat gluten-free, the soba noodles made with a combination of flours will not be gluten-free. Despite the name, “buckwheat” does not contain gluten like regular wheat does, so if you buy 100% buckwheat soba noodles, you’re good-to-go if you eat gluten-free.
I think it’s time to get to the actual recipe. I hope these Coconut-Ginger Shrimp Soba Noodle Bowls hit the spot for you like they do for me!
P.S. Always keep a napkin handy when eating a noodle bowl”¦it just never fails that I get chin-slapped with the noodles or other ingredients when I eat a noodle bowl. Or am I the only person this happens to?
How-To Photos for Coconut-Ginger Shrimp Soba Noodle Bowls:
Dry soba noodles look like this!
After cooking the noodles, rinse with cold water and drain well.
While the noodles are cooking, get the other components prepped. Here is the start of the coconut milk mixture that adds so much flavor! Whisk well before adding the coconut milk so that the peanut butter gets fully incorporated.
After adding the coconut milk, it will look like this.
Shave the carrots using a vegetable peeler. The carrots will get too thin to continue shaving – save those parts to use for snacking or in another recipe.
Here’s what the shaved carrots look like – they look like noodles too!
Cook the kale and shaved carrots in chicken broth – I use my Homemade Chicken Bone Broth here.
The kale will stay bright green as long as you don’t overcook it.
Add the coconut milk mixture and cooked soba noodles.
Cook the shrimp and onion in a large skillet.
This step only takes about 5 minutes.
Add shrimp and onions to the pot and heat through.
Enjoy!
- 1 pound fresh or frozen peeled and deveined shrimp
- 6 ounces dry soba noodles
- 2 to 3 tablespoons finely chopped, peeled fresh ginger
- 2 tablespoons natural creamy peanut butter
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 2 tablespoons reduced-sodium soy sauce
- ½ teaspoon ground turmeric
- ¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper (optional)
- 1 14-ounce can lite or full-fat coconut milk
- 4 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth*
- 4 cups torn fresh kale
- 2 cups shaved carrots** or 1 cup coarsely shredded carrots
- 1 tablespoon refined coconut oil
- ¼ medium onion, thinly sliced
- Thaw shrimp, if frozen. Rinse shrimp with cold water; pat dry with paper towels. Set aside. In a 4- to 6-quart pot, cook soba noodles in boiling water according to package directions; drain in a wire colander. Rinse well with cold water; drain and set aside.
- In a medium bowl whisk together ginger, peanut butter, honey, soy sauce, turmeric, and crushed red pepper (if using). Whisk in coconut milk until smooth. Set aside.
- In the pot used to cook the noodles, bring broth to boiling. Add kale and carrots. Cook, uncovered, for 3 minutes. Stir in coconut milk mixture and cooked noodles.
- Meanwhile, heat coconut oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add shrimp and onion. Cook for 4 to 5 minutes or until shrimp are opaque and onion is just tender, turning shrimp and stirring once or twice. Add shrimp and onion to pot with noodle mixture. Heat through over medium-low heat for 1 to 2 minutes. Serve right away.
- *I use my Homemade Chicken Bone Broth for this noodle bowl. If you prefer, you can use purchased reduced-sodium chicken broth or stock.
- **To shave carrots, peel carrots. Hold carrot at one end, gripping as little of the carrot as possible. Using a vegetable peeler, peel down the length of the carrot to make long, very thin shavings; turn carrot with every few peels to shave the carrot evenly. When the carrot is too thin to continue peeling, cut what’s left of the carrot into carrot sticks and save for snacking. You will need about 3 medium carrots to get 2 cups shaved carrot.
- Make sure to use soba noodles made with 100% buckwheat, and not a combination of buckwheat and other grains. Also, make sure to use gluten-free soy sauce.
- 6 servings (about 1 ½ cups per serving)
- 330 cals, 19 g pro, 41 g carb, 10 g fat, 95 mg cholesterol, 6 g sat fat, 5 g fiber, 1006 mg sodium
