Felicity Cloake’s perfect zaru soba . Photograph: Robert Billington/The Guardian. Food styling: Loïc Parisot. View image in fullscreen Felicity Cloake’s perfect zaru soba . Photograph: Robert Billington/The Guardian. Food styling: Loïc Parisot. How to cook the perfect ... Noodles How to make the perfect zaru soba, or cold soba noodles – recipe Hot days call for cool dinners, and these are Japan’s nutty, salty and sweet solution. Fiery or pickled accompaniments optional
Felicity Cloake Sun 23 Aug 2026 14.00 CEST Last modified on Sun 23 Aug 2026 14.04 CEST Share Prefer the Guardian on Google A lthough every culture craves something different in hot weather – chilled beetroot soup in Lithuania, cooling buttermilk drinks in India, gazpacho in Spain – what many of these dishes have in common is a certain soothing silkiness as they slide down the throat, plus a decent helping of salt. Japan’s zaru soba , which Namiko Hirasawa Chen of Just One Cookbook describes as her family’s “go-to meal when the summer heat and humidity soar”, is no exception. Cold, slippery noodles paired with a savoury dipping sauce, it’s a simple, satisfying dish that’s ready in 15 minutes, and can be accessorised with crunchy salads, sweet seafood or creamy tofu sides for something more substantial. Traditionally served on a bamboo mat, or zaru , to allow the noodles to drain, you can get away without one at home (though lose the seaweed and you can call it mori soba instead), this is definitely one to stick in your summer repertoire alongside the chilled soups, watermelon salads and cucumber sandwiches.
Zaru soba isn’t the only chilled noodle dish that Japan slurps in summer – Emiko Davies favours her mother’s somen (delicate wheat-flour strands), while Shota Nakajima makes a case for hiyashi chuka , a Chinese-inspired ramen salad. Sadly, though, spindly somen and fresh ramen are trickier to source in the UK than buckwheat soba, which can be found in many larger supermarkets.
In fact, Yumiko Maehashi of RecipeTin Japan reckons that these noodles’ nutty flavour is best enjoyed cold: “I read in a Japanese soba article that some soba fanatics would not consider the soba in hot soup as ‘soba’.” Not all, however, are created equal, as Maehashi goes on to explain: “Some soba brands indicate the ratio of buckwheat and wheat flours mixed in the soba noodles. The more buckwheat flour, the more flavour and the more expensive … It is really your preference as to what sort of soba noodles are the best, but, in general, the more expensive dried soba noodles cook to al dente better.” If you’d like to keep this dish gluten-free, you’ll need to look for 100% buckwheat noodles (and a gluten-free Japanese soy sauce – Kikkoman makes one), but, otherwise, it’s up to you. Buckwheat can, after all, be an acquired taste, especially in such a simple dish.
The noodles are cooked without salt, I suspect to facilitate the contrast with the dipping sauce. Swirling them around the pan for the first 15 or so seconds, as Maehashi suggests, is a helpful tip to ensure that the strands don’t clump together. It’s also vital to rinse them well afterwards, to quickly cool down the noodles before they overcook, and to wash off some of the starch that will otherwise turn those lovely, silky noodles into a sticky bird’s nest (trust me on this). Chen dunks hers in iced water, too, but I don’t find that this step makes much of a difference texture-wise. Then again, neither do I notice that doing so causes…