This recipe is a really nice take on a summery pasta salad. This one has sort of a Asian spin on it with soba noodles and the dressing but it was very fresh. The grilled nectarines are such a great touch too because they are just coming in season now and grilling the fruit brings out so much sweetness.

Unfortunately I could not find soba noodles at the store so I used thin noodles instead which worked very well. The dressing starts with a good amount of ginger, as well as some soy sauce, rice vinegar, sesame oil and lemon juice. It is also thinned out quite a bit because there is water added in too. I wasn’t sure if the dressing would coat the noodles nicely because it was so watered down, but it did and they had a lot of good flavour.

The nectarines get their own boost of flavour with a little mixture of lemon juice, five spice, oil and salt. It gets brushed on before grilling. The nectarines only go on the grill for a couple minutes total, just to give them a little char. Of course I had to try a slice of the nectarine when it came off the grill and it was really tasty. The spices add a good amount of flavour and help to bring out even more sweetness from the fruit.

The last ingredient in the salad is some spinach. The recipe actually calls for watercress but I like the mild flavour of spinach. This adds a nice pop of colour too which is the perfect contrast with the orange nectarine.

I really enjoyed this salad and would definitely suggest it for a weekend party or potluck.