soba noodles with aubergine and mango

I'm still on a veggie recipe roll and loving it! I'm obsessed with Ottolenghi's and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's veggie recipe books, every recipe I've tried tastes so good. Here's another winner from Ottolenghi's Plenty. This recipe is definitely a crowd pleaser, it's just so deliciously limey, juicy and noodly (how good are soba noodles?), and it has mangoes, yum! I've made it twice now and a mango arrived this week from Abel and Cole, so it looks like I'll be making it again very soon.

Soba noodles with aubergine and mango

From Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi

Serves 6

Ingredients

120ml rice vinegar

40g caster sugar

1/2 tsp salt

2 garlic cloves, crushed

1/2 fresh red chilli, finely chopped

1 tsp toasted sesame oil

grated zest and juice of 1 lime

220ml sunflower oil

2 aubergines, cut into 2cm dice

250g soba noodles

1 large ripe mango, cut into 1cm dice or into 5mm thick strips

40g basil leaves, chopped 

40g coriander leaves, chopped

1/2 red onion, very thinly sliced

Directions

Make the dressing. In a small saucepan gently warm the vinegar, sugar and salt until the sugar dissolves (up to 1 minute). Remove from heat and add the garlic, chilli and sesame oil. Allow to cool, then add the lime zest and juice.

Heat the sunflower oil in a large pan and shallow-fry the aubergine in three or four batches. Once golden brown remove to a colander, sprinkle liberally with salt and leave to drain.

Cook the noodles in plenty of boiling salted water, stirring occasionally (approx 5-8 minutes). Drain and rinse under running cold water. Shake off excess water and leave to dry on a tea towel.

In a mixing bowl toss the noodles with the dressing, mango, aubergine, half of the herbs and the onion. This can be left aside for 1-2 hours. Add the rest of the herbs and mix well when ready to serve.