Tofu & aubergine soba noodles

Ingredients 6 baby aubergines, 150g tofu, 3 tbs pomegranate molasses, 1 red chilli, 3 tbs olive oil, 1 tsp soy sauce, 175g soba noodles.

Serves: 2 Preparation: 30 minutes (plus overnight for marinating)

Being allergic to soya, tofu is something that never makes its way into my vegetarian cooking. When I was asked recently to come up with a recipe, I asked my guinea pigs to describe the texture for me and as a result decided to treat them like the aubergines - melt-in-the-mouth sponges to soak up delicious flavours. The marinade is sweet and spicy from the pomegranate molasses and chilli combination, but with a smoky umami undercurrent from the soy sauce.

1) Slice the tops from the aubergines and slice in half lengthways. Sprinkle the inside half with salt to draw out the bitter juices, then wipe them with some kitchen towel after 5 minutes. Slice each piece in half widthways.

2) Slice the top from the chilli and slit it lengthways. Scrape out the seeds with your knife and discard. Cut the flesh into pieces and add along with the chunks of aubergine and tofu to a freezer bag.

3) Add the pomegranate molasses, oil and soy sauce to the freezer bag, seal and shake well. Leave in the fridge overnight.

4) Pour the contents of the freezer bag into an ovenproof dish and roast for 25 minutes at 200 degrees.

5) Add the noodles to boiling water and stir until soft (about 5 minutes), drain and pour in with the aubergines. Season with a little salt and serve hot or cold.

Quorn corn chowder with noodles

Ingredients 1/2 litre vegetable stock, 200g sweetcorn, 1 cup Quorn, 100g noodles, 1 red and 1 green chilli pepper.

Serves: 4 Preparation: 20 minutes

Corn chowder is a thing of beauty - sweet, spicy, light and cheap but nutritionally it really doesn't contain anything that makes a meal. I like to give it a protein kick with some Quorn "chicken" pieces and some noodles to 

1) Finely dice the chilli peppers and add to a pan

2) Add the vegetable stock and sweetcorn and stir through.

3) Simmer for about 5 minutes until the sweetcorn has cooked, strain the sweetcorn from the liquid before blending thoroughly and parsing through a sieve to separate the sweetcorn flesh from the skin.

4) Add the pureed sweetcorn back to the vegetable stock along with some more sweetcorn, the Quorn pieces and the noodles and simmer for 5 minutes.

Chicken satay

Ingredients   Chicken, broccoli, bell pepper,     noodles, peanut butter (I like Whole Earth Foods), sherry, dark soy sauce, white wine vinegar, basil oil, cayenne pepper.

1) Scoop 3 tablespoons of peanut butter into a pan and allow it to melt. Stir the chicken pieces into the peanut butter and leave to marinate for 20 minutes.


2) Add 2 tablespoons of basil oil, a tablespoon of sherry, a tablespoon of dark soy sauce and a tablespoon of white wine vinegar to a wok. Add the chicken and stir through for 10 minutes.


3) Cut the florets from the broccoli stalk and put in some water to boil.


4) Slice a bell pepper and a handful of mushrooms and add to the pan with the chicken. Stir fry for a further 10 minutes then add the noodles. Stir fry for 5 minutes, drain the broccoli and stir it through before serving.

Soba noodles with plum sauce

Ingredients 1lb plums, 50g sugar, 3 cloves garlic, 4 scotch bonnet chillis, ginger root, lime juice, yoghurt, soba noodles, spinach, red bell pepper, courgette, Quorn chicken/chicken

1) To make the plum sauce, cut the plums in half and remove the stones. Add into a saucepan with 50g of sugar and a cup of water. Stir through until the sugar has dissolved.

2) As the plums begin to soften, peel and slice a root of ginger and add into the pan along with 3 crushed garlic cloves and a squeeze of lime.

3) Remove the seeds and stalks from 4 scotch bonnet chillis, slice in half and add into the pan. Stirring frequently, allow the mixture to reduce and the sauce to thicken, then pass through a sieve - leaving the ginger and the chilli and fruit skins seperate from the liquid.

This sweet, fiery sauce is best served in a stir fry but would also go wonderfully with duck, or as a marinade for kebabs like my butternut squash and beetroot kebabs.

4) Add the Quorn chicken pieces to a pan along with a generous helping of the plum sauce and some julienne slices of courgette and bell pepper.

5) Cook the soba noodles in hot salted water for 5 minutes, then add to the pan along with a few generous handfuls of spinach.

6) Stir through until the sauce has coated everything and the spinach has just begun to wilt, then serve topped with yoghurt. Personally I think Rachel's Organic Greek style coconut yoghurt is absolutely PERFECT for this dish.

Sweet chilli soba noodles

Ingredients Soba noodles, broccoli, goji berries, sweetcorn, rice vinegar, garlic, salt, lime, lemon, honey, 2 serrano chillis, 2 birds eye chillis.

1) To make the sweet chilli sauce: deseed and finely dice the chillis then add into a pan with a good splash of rice vinegar, 3 cloves of minced garlic, a pinch of salt and 2 tablespoons of sugar. Bring the mixture to a rolling boil, stirring frequently and then turn down the heat and simmer until the sauce thickens.
Squeeze in some lemon and lime juice to taste.


2) Steam some broccoli florets


3) Drop the soba noodles into into hot water and add a handful of goji berries and sweetcorn. Goji berries taste repulsive when dried, but once they have rehydrated they become sweet and delicious. After 7 minutes strain the water from the noodles and stir in the sweet chilli sauce and broccoli.


Serve!