Friday, April 25, 2025

Tahini & soya mince noodles
with pickled radishes

March 8, 2025

   

Meera Sodha's vegan recipe column at The Guardian is becoming a staple of our research when we feel like cooking something new. Cindy bookemarked this really simple looking noodle dish and we made it a priority to give a try at home. It's really so straightforward - a perfect weeknight option, especially if you've got veggie mince and chilli bean sauce in your pantry. The tahini really makes this rich and savoury and you need a good portion of the tangy radishes to cut through (some chilli oil helps too). This is already in our regular rotation - you should add it to yours.


Tahini & soya mince noodles with pickled radishes
(based on this recipe from Meera Sodha's Guardian column)

1 bunch of radishes (~150g), trimmed and finely sliced
150ml rice vinegar
1 teaspoon caster sugar
1 teaspoon salt

1/2 to 2/3 cup tahini
4 tablespoons chilli bean paste (e.g. this one)
1 tablepoon golden syrup
4 teaspoons sesame oil
4 tablespoons peanut oil (the original recipe has rapeseed oil here)
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon minced ginger
120g dried soy mince (usually sold as textured vegetable protein/tvp)
180g dried ramen noodles
toasted sesame seeds

Combine the rice vinegar, sugar and salt in a small saucepan and heat it up until the salt and sugar have dissolved. Pour the hot pickling liquid over the sliced radishes and leave in a bowl to cool.

In a different bowl stir together the chilli bean paste, tahini, syrup, sesame oil and a shake of salt and set aside.

Add the peanut oil to a frying pan and gently fry the garlic and ginger for a couple of minutes. Throw in the dried soy mince and stir for another few minutes, then add 350ml of water. Stir everything together for a few minutes until the water has been absorbed, then stir in the chilli bean/tahini sauce you made earlier and kill the heat.

Cook the noodles as per the packet instructions, drain and rinse and then toss through a glug of oil and stir them into your mince mix. 

Serve, topped with sesame seeds and pickled radishes.

2 comments:

  1. Hello, absolutely love your blog/ emails and have subscribed for over a decade would you believe!
    The link to the chilli bean paste you recommend seems broken- goes to an error page … can you please elaborate?

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    Replies
    1. Hi Christine! Really glad that you're still checking in after all these years. :)

      Weirdly, the link is still working for me. It's for Lee Kum Kee brand chilli bean sauce (toban djan). The link is to the Coles website but we buy it from our nearest Asian grocery.

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