When I changed my diet to focus on plant-based meals and moved away from junk food, I found exploring new ingredients intimidating. Sure, I could easily toss together a salad, bake a sweet potato, or grill asparagus. But I avoided other ingredients for years. Jicama, kohlrabi, and collards didn't find their way into my diet until much later. However, once they did, I realized I was missing out. In fact, collards are the perfect cooking green in my opinion. They are one of the heartier greens, holding up to heat much better than their chard or spinach counterparts. This tahini noodle bowl is just the start of a few collard recipes this fall. It's easy, vegan, and the perfect way to jump into cooking collards.
PrintTahini Noodle Bowl with Collards
A creamy vegan noodle bowl with wilted collards and a homemade tahini sauce. Perfect for a light dinner or work lunch.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 2 servings 1x
- Category: Main Course
Ingredients
- 4 ounces soba noodles
- ½ medium red onion
- 1 large bell pepper or 5 to 6 small red peppers
- 1 bunch collards (roughly ½ pound)
- 2 tablespoons olive oil (divided)
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- Sesame seeds (for serving)
Sauce
- 3 tablespoons tahini
- 3 to 4 tablespoons lemon juice (roughly one lemon)
- 1 clove small garlic
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ⅓ cup noodle water
Instructions
- Cook soba noodles according to package. Drain noodles but retain water for sauce.
- While noodles are cooking, peel and dice red onion. Dice red peppers. Rinse collards and remove stems. Slice collard leaves into thin ribbons, about ¼-inch thick.
- Heat a large pot with a good lid on medium-low heat. Add 1 tablespoon olive oil. Add onions and stir to coat. Cover and let brown, about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. When onions have browned, add 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Add collards and salt. Stir until the greens begin to wilt down, 3 to 4 minutes. Cover and let cook, about 5 minutes until collards are soft. Add in red peppers. Stir and then remove from heat.
- In a blender, combine tahini, lemon juice, garlic, olive oil, salt, and noodle water. Blend until smooth. Sauce should be a creamy consistency, but not runny.
- Combine sauce with the noodles and mix until well coated. Stir in vegetables and serve with a sprinkle of toasted sesame seeds.
Notes
Tips & Tricks: Covering the onions helps them brown more quickly. As long as the heat is low and even, they will continue to caramelize.
Younger collards will be more tender, and take less time to cook. Older collards may take 10 to 15 minutes to soften.
Looking to make this gluten-free? Make sure you find 100% buckwheat soba noodles. Most brands contain wheat.
Stock up: get the pantry ingredients you will need: soba noodles, tahini, olive oil
Nutrition: See the information.
Nutrition
- Calories: 627
- Sugar: 4
- Sodium: 1080.7
- Fat: 40.4
- Carbohydrates: 60.1
- Fiber: 8
- Protein: 16.2
- Cholesterol: 0
Tahini Noodle Bowl
variations
I often use greens in noodle bowls because it keeps the cooking time down. In addition, because of an easy, no-cook sauce, this tahini noodle bowl comes together in about 30 minutes. A few ways you can mix up this bowl:
Greens: Can’t find collards? You could use kale or swiss chard in this noodle bowl instead. Slice them in ribbons as you would the collards to keep the cook time to a minimum.
Noodles: This recipe would also work with other noodles such as udon or even spaghetti.
Protein: Looking to add heft to this recipe and make it a meal? Add protein such as a fried egg or a chopped up a hard boiled egg.
Explore Collards
As mentioned above, collards are a wonderful green vegetable addition to your kitchen. In fact, it's an easy swap if you're used to using kale and chard quite a bit. Even I'm a bit guilty of not using collards as much as I would like. However, now is a great time to bring it into the dinner rotation. A few recipes to dive into cooking with collards:
Collard Quinoa Salad
Grilled Greens and Leeks
Hummus Collard Wraps
Peppermint Dolly says
It looks fantastic!
Rxx
mariko says
wow, this looks really great! And I love all the variations and extra info. I had no idea buckwheat was gluten-free. I'm a newbie foodie :-_
The Wooden Spoon says
This sounds amazing. I love how creative with Tahini you are!
Maria says
This looks delicious!! Tahini is such a great thickener and flavor complement. I only recently discovered how versatile it can be in asian inspired sauces. Excited to try this one! I love collards and swiss chard in dishes like this for he same reason - so speedy!!
★★★★★
Lakesha says
This is delicious. I'm cooking this again next week. My husband is vegetarian so i'm gathering quick recipes. The sauce reminds me of a home-made Alfredo sauce that i make. This re-heats well. Couldn't figure out if I should eat it hot or cold. Definitely hot for me.
★★★★★
Lakesha Tillman says
Delicious.....we've cooked this about 5 times so far.
★★★★★