There’s a yiddush word, shpilkas, which roughly translates to “ants in the pants.” You could say that we both have a pretty strong case of it when it comes to recipes.

If there’s something we decide to make, we want to go out, get the ingredients immediately, and start cooking. If for some reason we can’t, I become agitated and Alex becomes agitated at my agitation. And so on.

This a dish that I’ve had shpilkas about for longer than usual. I love soba noodle salads, and the dish is on every to-do recipe list that we keep (and there are a lot of them – on each of our computers, in a recipe notebook, on post-its across our walls).

We adapted our recipe from a new cookbook that we’re addicted to called Bill’s Food. We found the book in Maine, and it’s perfect for us — one of those cookbooks where every single recipe looks irresistible, and not just because of the beautiful photographs.

We decided to make ours more vegetable-heavy since we’re  into equal-parts pasta/rice and vegetables salads.  This one was delicious, and took far less time and effort than expected.  Definitely add it to your recipe to-do list, and of course, let us know how it turns out!

Ingredients (serves 4):
2 small packages (about 450 g) soba noodles
3 cups napa cabbage, very thinly sliced
1 red pepper, very thinly sliced
6-8 radishes, very thinly sliced
2 chicken breasts
2 scallions
1/2 tsp black pepper
2 tbsp salt (preferably sea salt or kosher salt)
3 thick slices peeled ginger
1/2 cup light soy sauce
1/2 cup mirin
4 tbsp rice wine vinegar

Instructions:
Fill a medium-sized saucepan with cold water, and add ginger, scallion, pepper and salt. Bring to a boil, then add chicken breasts and stir. Turn off heat, cover pot tightly, and leave for 1 hour. Bring a second pot of water to boil, then add noodles and cook for about three minutes. Drain noodles, and rinse with cold water to cool. Whisk together soy sauce, mirin and rice wine vinegar to make a dressing, then toss about 1/2 of the dressing over the noodles to lightly coat. Add cabbage, radishes, and pepper, and stir. When chicken has poached and cooked through, slice into pieces and add to the soba salad. Add remaining dressing to taste, and serve.