Soy Goddess

Last month I fell in love with kelp noodles and I swore that day that I would soon recreate the dish that sparked this love.

Remember this gorgeous meal?  Thank you Chaco Canyon for blowing my mind with the ginger sesame bowl and introducing me to kelp noodles.

I wasted no time trying to track down these elusive noodles.  Whole Foods hooked it up.

Sea Tangle makes kelp noodles that I found near the seafood counter in the weird ocean products section at Whole Foods.

As you can can’t really see, they are stored in a bit of water.  The back of the bag has a few recipes, too, but I had my own plans for the noodles.

My main goal was to replicate the aforementioned (ad nauseum much?) ginger sesame sauce from Chaco Canyon, while incorporating the flavors of Annie’s goddess dressing.  Oh, and naturally I wanted to find any excuse to use my new baby (aka my food processor).  Can you tell how much I’m lovin’ the FP?!?  Love it!

Into the Eff Pizzle went:

• 1/2 carton silken tofu (6 oz.)
• 1/3 cucumber
• 1/4 avocado
• 1 tbsp nutritional yeast
• 1 tbsp raw cashews
• 2 tsp stone ground mustard
• 2 tbsp Bragg’s apple cider vinegar
• 1 tsp Bragg’s liquid aminos
• 2 tbsp tamari/soy sauce
• 1 tbsp sesame seeds (or 1 tbsp tahini)
• 1 1/2 tbsp ground ginger (I added more after but I’m a ging-a-holic)
• 3 drops NuNaturals liquid stevia (or 1 medjool date)

Pulse pulse pulse…and there you have it…soy goddess sauce.

The cucumber provided enough liquid once blended up with the silken tofu that very little else was needed to thin it out after the vinegar, soy sauce, and Bragg’s.  And the combo of the cashews, sesame seeds, and nooch gave it a nutty/cheesy flavor, while the ginger and soy sauce gave it a tangy punch.  SO SO SO GOOD!  While not totally eloquent, that’s all I could say over and over (and over and over again).

I ate several spoonfuls before finally pouring it over the noodles.

Oh sweet hippie heaven.  Chaco Canyon has met it’s match (which is good since I don’t really want to visit Seattle every time I get a craving for this meal).

Sauce?  Good.  Noodles?  Good.  What’s not to love.

The have such a unique texture, crunchy and a bit stretchy, but not tough or chewy.  They are pretty hard to describe, so if what I just said sounds unappealing feel free to ignore it (they’re good, I promise!).  And if you are fearful that they are at all similar in flavor to the gaggy shirataki noodles (that they unfortunately look nearly identical to), worry not.  They are nothing like those odd, bland, fake things.  Like any other noodle, they are very adaptable to whatever flavor you add to them.  I see a thai coconut peanut sauce in my future…

Another thing they have going for them is their hassle-free preparation.  No cooking is required – all you have to do is rinse them and they are ready to eat!

In case you are a kelp noodle virgin, here’s a quick little 101.  Aside from kelp, the only ingredients in the noodles are sodium alginate (sodium salt extracted from a brown seaweed) and water.  The healthful content of sea vegetables provides a rich source of trace minerals (ie iodine).

Un-cooking at its finest.

Oh and did I mention how versatile they are?  You can use them so many ways, including salads, stir-fries, soups, and/or pastas.  But then, same goes for the soy goddess sauce…

Exhibit A: a simple spinach salad with soy goddess sauce dressing.

To be honest, I could devour this sauce with or without any other ingredients.  It’s THAT good.

Add these ingredients (and the kelp noodles too, for that matter) to your grocery list right now.  No really.  Do it now.