I love somen noodles in the summer but hit something of an impasse when I turned veggie and found I couldn’t use tsuyu anymore. It took a while but I happened upon a mix of sesame oil, soy sauce and wakame which made for very tasty noodles. This can get a little dull after a while though so I turned to one of my favourite books ‘Happy Vegetarian’. It is only available in Japanese but even though my reading skills aren’t great I can follow the recipes without any problems and there are plenty of colour photos to show what the end result should look like. Here’s their sesame sauce recipe; great for somen or as a sauce for vegetables:

• 75g ground sesame (it’s tastier if you grind the sesame just before you use it)
• 3 Tbsp miso paste
• 300cc kombu dashi
• 3 Tbsp soy sauce
• 1/4 – 1/2 tsp sesame oil

Mix all the ingredients together and refrigerate until needed.