Somen Noodle Salad in Inarizushi - Fried Soybean Skins/Pockets

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Somen Salad in Inari Tofu Packets (Food Librarian)

Making salads "to go" is hard. Remember when McDonald's came out with the Salad McShaker in the 90's? I saw people eating that in cars...before cell phones took over as major distractions.

Put the plastic container and long fork away. Try this summer somen salad to go!

Somen Salad in Inari Tofu Packets - Kamaboko (Food Librarian) Somen Salad in Inari Tofu Packets (Food Librarian)
Kamaboko is steamed fish cake. It isn't too fishy, and adds pretty colors to the dish. I bought prepared "Inarizushi No Moto" pouches in a can, but you can also make them yourself. See links below for instructions from JustHungry.

Somen Salad in Inari Tofu Packets (Food Librarian) Somen Salad in Inari Tofu Packets (Food Librarian)
Inarizushi pouches, abura-age, and inari age (lots of name for this...and "age" is not pronounced "what's your age in years?" but "ah-ge" (ge as is "get") is basically a fried tofu pouch that is seasoned...you can open the pouch and stuff it with yummy stuff. Most often it is used for inari sushi (or footballs as we called them as kids).

Somen Salad in Inari Tofu Packets (Food Librarian)
My salad contained: Somen noodles, eggs strips, kamaboko, frozen peas (thawed), green onions. See my earlier post about somen noodles.

You could add anything you want to this salad...edamame, fake crab, lettuce, cucumber, and other veggies. You can also top the salad with nori (seaweed).

Somen Salad in Inari Tofu Packets (Food Librarian)
I mixed up a quick dressing of: 1 T sesame seeds, dash of salt, 2 T sugar, 2 T sesame oil, 2 T veggie oil, 1/4 c rice wine vinegar, 2 T soy sauce...then stuffed the pouches with the salad!

Somen Salad in Inari Tofu Packets (Food Librarian)
Top each pocket with some sesame seeds!

Forget the Salad McShaker. Go for the Somen McSalad instead.

Additional Information and Recipes:
Cooking the somen noodles from Food Librarian's earlier post
Inarizushi: Sushi in a Bean Bag from Just Hungry
Making your own fried tofu skins from Just Hungry
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15 comments:

Davery said... [Reply to comment]

Gosh that makes me so hungry! Little tofu pockets of goodness!

Larie said... [Reply to comment]

Oh, so tasty! And I love that you made your own somen sauce. I usually just buy it from the grocery because, well, I'm lazy. :( I miss somen - it's the perfect summer food, but I never have time to get to the Uwajimaya around here.

Pauline said... [Reply to comment]

I love inari sushi! This is a cool twist to use somen noodles inside. Like an asian salad in a pocket! Cute.

TeaLady said... [Reply to comment]

These look interesting. Bet they are good.

Engineer Baker said... [Reply to comment]

That looks amazing! And what a blast from the past - McD's salad shakers, too funny. I would definitely throw some seaweed in there.

Audrie said... [Reply to comment]

I love these but I've never made them! I wonder if my local Asian supermarket sells the pockets.

Jessica said... [Reply to comment]

I grew up eating flavored rice in soy bean skins, so I'm so excited to see these skins used in another way! What a creative idea! Looks like it would be a fun hor d'ourves!

kirbie said... [Reply to comment]

Oh this is so creative! I love the tofu pockets and I've never thought to put anything else in them, but the noodle salad looks delicious. I'm going to try this out this weekend.

Cookie said... [Reply to comment]

What a creative idea! I love tofu pockets but always just had 1 or 2 at sushi places. These would make great lil picnic snacks!

Jami said... [Reply to comment]

Yum! Love inari. And saw you on Tastespotting!

Anonymous said... [Reply to comment]

I'm so drooling all over my keyboard right now. Mmmm.....Racheal

kirsty_girl said... [Reply to comment]

Inari comes in cans in the states? How interesting. I'm definitely going to try this sometime this week. Looks great!

Coco Cake Land said... [Reply to comment]

i so wish i remember this crazy salad mcshaker thing!!

these little party pockets look AMAZING. we used to make inari when we were kids with these soybean pockets, we called them RICE BAGS!!! i still call them rice bags... but in restaurants of course order them as inari... :)

Emi said... [Reply to comment]

I've never seen inarizushi like this. This looks great and tasty!

Anjali said... [Reply to comment]

What a super-cute idea! I'm always looking for tasty, portable snack food ideas and this is perfect. I'm also inspired to stuff the inari skins with seasoned (but non-sushi) rice mixed with other ingredients like shiso or shiitake or takenoko. Hmm...

Thanks for the inspiration! I just found your blog and as a fellow Angeleno suffering through the heat, I'm in awe of your commitment to baking.

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