Soba With Grilled Asparagus And Sea Scallops With Sweet Miso Sauce

This lesser yang noodle dish is adapted from “Noodles Every Day” by Corinne Trang. But unlike the lesser yin recipe below, there are lots of substitutions: grape juice for sugar, white wine for sake, and almonds for walnuts. I also left out the ginger. The nice thing about Japanese food is that it doesn’t always contain garlic and onion. Oh, and it’s yummy?

Soba is a noodle made with buckwheat and wheat. The amount of wheat will not be too warming but if you want to eliminate it or if you must because of gluten issues, Eden makes 100% buckwheat noodles. Be careful though some of the packages say 100% organic, which can be confusing.

Serves 6

3 Tbs. concentrated grape juice

¼ cup dry white wine

3 Tbs. mirin

2 Tbs. rice vinegar

1/3 cup white miso

¼ cup vegetable oil

10 ounces dried soba noodles

36 medium asparagus spears, woody ends snapped or cut off

18 sea scallops

Sea salt

12 almonds, lightly toasted and coarsely chopped

In a bowl, whisk together the grape juice, wine, mirin, and rice vinegar. Add the white miso and 1 tablespoon of the oil and whisk until well combined. Set the miso glaze aside.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat and cook the noodles until tender yet firm, about 3 minutes. Drain, shock under cold running water, and drain again.

Heat a well-oiled pan over medium heat. Brush the asparagus and scallops with all or most of the remaining 3 tablespoons of oil and season with salt to taste. Grill the asparagus first until just tender, 3 to 5 minutes total, rolling them about to heat them evenly all around. Divide and top each noodle serving with asparagus. Grill the scallops in the same pan until cooked through and crisp on each side, about 2 minutes per side. Divide the scallops among the servings of noodles, and spoon some miso glaze over each. Serve garnished with the toasted almonds.