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Scissor-Cut Buckwheat Noodles with Miso Butter

Kerri Conan

BY The Editors

PUBLISHED December 30, 2024

Soba, the thin Japanese noodles made from all or part buckwheat, is associated with good luck at the New Year, though they’re also a big part of the everyday diet. Sometimes they’re served cold with dipping sauce, or they’re stir-fried with vegetables and meat – and called yakisoba – or they’re slipped into soup. Like Italian pasta, they’re always available dried and sometimes fresh, and the ambitious can make them at home. Enter this delightful and easy whole grain buckwheat noodle recipe, where you cut (or pinch) off bits of dough into a pot of bubbling water, akin to dumplings. The miso butter included is amazing, but you could also skip it and serve these plain with any meat, seafood, or vegetable stew.

See more buckwheat recipes in Here’s How to Cook an Auspicious (Sorta Polarizing) Grain.

 

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Scissor-Cut Buckwheat Noodles with Miso Butter

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Makes 4 servings 1x

Time 45 minutes

Units Scale

Ingredients

  • 1 cup Bob’s Red Mill buckwheat flour, plus more for flouring the noodles
  • 1/2 cup Bob’s Red Mill all-purpose flour
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt, plus more as needed
  • 2/3 cup boiling water, plus more as needed
  • 2 or 3 scallions
  • 1/4 cup white or yellow miso
  • 3 tablespoons cold butter
  • Ground chile, hot sauce, or chile oil or crisp to taste (optional)

Instructions

  1. Bring a large pot of unsalted water to boil. Put the flours, salt, and boiling water into a medium bowl; stir with a fork or soft spatula until combined. Have a small bowl of tap water next to your work station.
  2. Knead the dough in the bowl with wet hands, dipping them a few times in bowl of water as you go, and shape a ball of dough that’s smooth, crack-free, and somewhat elastic. (This takes just a couple minutes.) Cover the dough with a damp towel and rest at room temperature for at least 15 minutes or up to an hour.
  3. Trim and chop the scallions, keeping white and green parts separate. Whisk the miso in a small bowl with 3/4 cup tap water. Cut the butter into several small pieces and keep it cold until you make the sauce.
  4. When the dough and boiling water are ready, transfer the miso-water mixture to a large skillet and turn the heat to medium low. When it steams, whisk in the butter a couple pieces at a time. Keep the sauce warm over low heat while you cook the noodles.
  5. Sprinkle a dinner plate with some buckwheat flour. Hold the dough ball in your non-dominant hand and, working from the outside toward the center, snip bits the size of pasta shells so that they fall onto the plate. When you’re done, carefully scrape the noodles into the boiling water. (Or if you’re comfortable working over the pot, snip the noodles into the boiling water; to avoid splashing, keep your hands near the edge of the pot, away from the steam.) You can also pinch little bits of dough off for more ragged edges.
  6. The noodles will sink, then rise and float to the top. Keep the water bubbling steadily but gently and cook until the noodles plump up and start to lighten and develop a craggy texture on their surface, 1 to 3 minutes, depending on their size. When you break one open it should be the same color and density throughout.
  7. Scoop out and reserve 1 cup of the cooking water, then use a slotted spoon or spider to transfer the noodles to the sauce. Add the scallion whites and toss, adding some of the reserved water as needed to make a sauce that coats the noodles. Taste and add salt and/or chile if you’d like. Garnish with the scallion greens and serve.

— Recipe developed by The Bittman Project for Bob’s Red Mill

Recipe variations

Buckwheat Gnocchi with Parmesan Butter.

It’s only a tad more work to get a more refined dumpling akin to the beloved Italian dumplings to serve simply sauced or alongside a hearty stew. For the sauce, substitute 4 ounces grated Parmesan cheese for the miso and skip the green onions. In Step 3 combine half the cheese with the water to start the sauce; reserve the rest to pass at the table. Instead of snipping or pinching the dough as described in Step 5, roll the dough into one or several ropes about 1/2-inch thick, then cut the ropes into 1/2-inch pieces. Make grooves in each gnocchi by gently rolling it along the back tines of a fork; as each piece is ready, put it on a baking sheet lined with parchment or wax paper; do not allow the gnocchi to touch one another. Finish cooking and saucing the gnocchi as described in the main recipe. 

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