Vegetable udon lo mein

Bring a pot of water and the soybean sticks to a boil, then boil them five more minutes to rehydrate.

Remove the woody ends of the asparagus, keeping them for stock, and trim the rest into bite-sized pieces.

Stir the soy sauce, rice vinegar, chili oil and maple syrup together for the sauce.

Cook the noodles for half the time on the package instructions; in this case four minutes.

Saute pan over medium high heat with olive oil. Reserve one cup of the cooking water and strain out the rest.

Add the asparagus to the pan and saute three to five minutes.

Add half a cup of crumbled extra-firm tofu, saute a minute, then add the noodles.

Deglaze the pan with the cooking water, and when most of it has been absorbed add the sauce.

Cook five to eight minutes, until most of the sauce has been absorbed. Plate and finish with freshly chopped green onion.