The benefits of buckwheat
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What soba does
What this vegetable does
It is held to wake the appetite and to move the bowels, and to help with poor digestion and constipation.
How to eat it
Good hot or cold and eaten as it is, and equally as a salad or a topping.
A yakuzen note
Soba is held to settle the stomach and support digestion, and to suit times when the appetite is poor or the gut is weak.
Soba is sweet and cool, a grain held to settle excess heat in the body and to settle the way the gut works. It helps move what you have eaten along, and suits daily care when the stomach feels heavy or when the heat takes the appetite. Good chilled and good hot, cold soba in summer and hot soba in winter, it is easy to bring in through the year.
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When soba is in season, its types, and how to choose it
If you want to enjoy what soba does, it helps to know its season, its types and how to choose it. How the buckwheat is milled and blended changes the colour, the scent and the way it goes down: a Japanese tradition with real depth.
New soba in season in autumn, grown mainly in Hokkaido and Shinshu
Soba is a noodle made from milled buckwheat, and the buckwheat itself is harvested twice a year, in summer and autumn. The most fragrant is the new soba harvested in autumn, which appears around October to November with a fresh scent and sweetness. The main growing areas are Hokkaido, the largest producer in the country, along with Nagano, known for Shinshu soba, Yamagata and Fukui. Part of the appeal of soba is that each region has its own inherited way of eating it, such as Izumo soba and Echizen oroshi soba.
Sarashina, inaka soba, and juwari and nihachi
Soba divides into several types according to how the buckwheat is milled and how it is blended with wheat flour.
| kinds | What stands out |
|---|---|
| Sarashina soba | A white soba milled from the centre of the grain alone. Refined, and smooth going down |
| Inaka soba | A darker soba milled husk and all. Strongly scented, with a firm bite |
| Juwari and nihachi soba | Juwari is one hundred per cent buckwheat; nihachi is eight parts buckwheat to two of wheat. A trade-off between scent and ease of binding |
White sarashina if you want the way it goes down, inaka soba if you want the scent of the buckwheat: you can choose to taste. The higher the proportion of buckwheat, the stronger the scent, and the more care the boiling and the handling take. It comes as dried noodles, fresh noodles and flour, so you can choose by what you are making.
How to choose it and how to blanch it
When picking out good soba, these are the things to look for.
- A high proportion of buckwheat, with buckwheat flour listed first among the ingredients
- In the new-soba season, a recent harvest year, with the scent rising
- An even gloss to the noodles, with few cracks or broken pieces
Boil soba quickly in plenty of water and tighten it in cold water the moment it is done, and the scent and the bite come forward. Overboiled, the flavour goes and the noodles soften, so keep the boiling time on the short side. The flavour dissolves into the cooking water, the soba-yu, so cutting the dipping sauce with it lets you enjoy it to the last.
How to eat soba
The scent of soba and the way it goes down are good cold and good hot. Here are the usual ways.
As zaru soba, kake soba and tsuke soba
The scent of soba is at its best in zaru or mori soba, tightened cold. Noodles tightened in cold water, dipped in sauce with wasabi, spring onion and shredded nori alongside, bring out both the way they go down and the scent. Hot kake soba, in a stock-rich broth, warms the body from within and suits winter. Change what goes with it, as in kamo nanban, tempura soba or meat soba, and the menu widens. Tsuke soba, cold noodles dipped in a chicken or duck broth, gives you scent and savour together.
As sobagaki and soba salad
There is more to soba than noodles. Sobagaki, buckwheat flour worked with hot water, is a plain dish that gives you the scent of the buckwheat at its strongest. Soba salad, boiled noodles topped with vegetables or poached chicken and dressed with a sesame sauce or a light broth, eats easily when the heat takes the appetite. Oroshi soba, topped with grated daikon, is clean and suits following a rich dish. Change what you serve with it and the same soba shows a different face.
How to keep soba
Dried soba keeps, so seal it away from damp and store it somewhere cool and dark out of direct sun. Fresh noodles spoil easily, so keep them in the fridge and use them within the stated date. Buckwheat flour loses its scent and turns rancid easily, so seal it and keep it in the fridge or the freezer and use it up before long. Boiled soba softens over time, so finishing it freshly boiled is best of all. What is left can be refrigerated and used the next day in a soba salad.
Alongside this, a grain likewise held to be kind to the gut, The benefits of barley and one likewise suited to daily care in hot weather, The benefits of Job's tears as a guide when building a seasonal table.
With its new-soba season in autumn, soba is a Japanese tradition to enjoy cold or hot, from zaru soba and kake soba to sobagaki and soba salad. Smooth sarashina, fragrant inaka soba, and juwari and nihachi with their different blends: choose by type and each shows its best. For daily care in the season when the heat takes the appetite, or when you want to be kind to the gut, bring soba in season into the day.
