Soba noodles with aubergine and mango and halloumi

OMG this is amazing... really fine combination of flavours, worth saying that I couldn't find a good picture, this is just noodles, imagine big blobs of yellow mango in it and purple aubergine and green herbs, it is eaten cold as a salad but fantastic with fried thick slices of halloumi cheese which is available at a supermarket in a packet.

You cook the aubergine and then the noodles and then leave them in the dressing for an hour , then serve.

serves 4 (you will need a sieve and or colander)

Make the dressing first:

120ml rice vinegar

40g caster sugar

1/2 tsp salt

2 garlic cloves crushed

1/2 red chilli finely chopped

1 tsp sesame oil

grated zest and juice of one lime

in a small saucepan heat the vinegar sugar and salt until dissolved. Take off heat and add garlic chilli sesame oil and leave to cool. Then add zest and juice of lime. Put to one side.

Then cook the aubergines and noodles:

220ml sunflower oil

2 aubergines diced into 1 cm cubes (i'd like them bigger)

250g soba noodles

1 large ripe mango (diced into small cubes)

40g basil leaves (chopped)

1/2 red onion finely chopped

40g coriander leaves chopped

heat the sunflower oil and fry the aubergine until golden, then drain and sprinkle with salt. Leave to drain.

Cook the noodles in boiling salted water for about 5mins until tender. Drain and rinse well in cold water. Shake off as much water as possible.

In a mixing bowl toss the noodles with the dressing , mango, aubergine. Leave for an hour. (i only left it for 1/2 hour)

When ready to serve mix in herbs and onion. Fry the thick slices of halloumi until golden.

serve together. Absolutely amazing. Worth buying the obscure (some would say) ingredients!