My friend Jim likes to smoke salmon, and the other day he was generous enough to give me some. It was perfect timing because I’d been thinking about making soba noodle salad with smoked salmon.

This salad is something you can make year-round. In the winter, it’s good because soba noodles are hearty, and smoked salmon and soy sauce is warming. In the spring and summer, it’s delicious because the cucumbers are cool and crunchy and the scallions add some brightness. I haven’t met many recipes that are this versatile, except for maybe chocolate cake.

ANYWAY. I’d highly recommend making this salad as soon as possible. If you have leftover smoked salmon or scallions, buy some cream cheese and make scallion cream cheese, and put it on a bagel with the salmon. That’s what I’m going to do for breakfast tomorrow and I’m pretty amped about it.

In the meantime, I’ll leave you with this song. It’s good for days when you’re counting down the minutes until you can sneak away from your desk and go get the doughnut that you wanted to eat yesterday at your favorite doughnut shop, but they were all sold out.

Smoked Salmon Soba Noodle Salad

Ingredients

3-4 oz soba noodles
1 ½ cups sliced or diced English cucumber
1/2 cup sliced scallions (cut on the diagonal)
4 oz smoked salmon
2 Tbsp toasted sesame seeds
2 tsp toasted sesame oil
2 tsp soy sauce
2 tsp rice wine vinegar

Directions

Cook the soba noodles for about 5 minutes in a pot of salted boiling water, or until they’re al dente. Drain and rinse under cold water.

Whisk the sesame oil, soy sauce, and rice wine vinegar in a large bowl. Add the soba noodles and toss to coat. Then add in the cucumber, scallions, and sesame seeds and toss together. Top with smoked salmon and any reserved sesame seeds, scallions, or cucumber. Leftovers will keep for a day or two in a sealed container in the fridge. Enjoy!