Today’s recipe comes double recommended. The moms I did a meal train for wrote to ask me for the recipe. That same week, my husband asked what was in the noodles that made them so good.

First, the meal train. The moms had requested dairy-free and noted that they loved sweet potatoes. I delivered a gluten-free dairy-free meal consisting of Japanese sweet potatoes roasted with gochuchang and maple syrup. These were chopped into spears to be eaten with one hand while holding a baby in the other hand. With the sweet potatoes, I made the sweet sesame cucumber salad I shared in this space last summer after a successful debut at the neighborhood weekly block party, and rice noodles and fried tofu tossed with this wonderful dressing.

I’m not sure what makes this dressing so tasty. I adapted it from G. Daniela Galarza’s Eat Voraciously column in the Washington Post, and she adapted it from “The Longevity Kitchen: Big Flavor Recipes Featuring the Top 16 Age-Busting Power Foods” by Rebecca Katz and Mat Edelson. Perhaps it’s the shiro, aka white miso. Maybe it’s the tahini and maple syrup. All together it makes for a wonderful dressing that works very well with both buckwheat soba noodles and rice noodles.

I’ve fiddled with the recipe a bit, choosing to use seasoned rice vinegar instead of unseasoned. I vary the citrus in the recipe, sometimes even using the winter mandarins ubiquitous on my counter this time of year. I skip the cayenne, always hoping that my kids will eat it because it’s not spicy. If you don’t have tahini, sub in peanut butter. This would be great with lots of fresh mint and cilantro in the summer. On the other hand, I have made this in the dead of March with roasted green beans on the side for something green.

Choose whatever noodles you want, but rice and buckwheat are my choices here.

For the fried tofu:

Ingredients:

1 (14 oz / 400 g) block extra-firm tofu

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2 to 3 tablespoons (16 to 24 g) cornstarch

1 tablespoon (15 ml) oil, for pan

Directions:

Drain the tofu and squeeze it between your hands over the sink to get the excess water out. Slice it into cubes, or slabs. Sprinkle 1 heaping tablespoon (about 8 to 12g) cornstarch into a large container, add the tofu in a single layer, then sprinkle another heaping tablespoon (8 to 12g) of cornstarch. If you can, cover the container and shake to coat the tofu with cornstarch.

In a large nonstick skillet, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the tofu in a single layer and fry, flipping once when golden, until crispy on both sides, about 4 minutes per side.

While the tofu is frying, prepare the sauce:

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons rice vinegar

2 tablespoons shiro (white) miso

Juice of half a lime

1 tablespoon maple syrup

1 tablespoon tahini

1 tablespoon tamari or soy sauce

1 squeeze of lemon juice

Half teaspoon peeled and finely grated ginger

Shake everything together in a small glass jar.

Molly Parr lives in Florence with her husband and two young daughters. She’s been writing her food blog, Cheap Beets, since 2010. Send questions or comments to molly.parr@gmail.com.