Meera Sodha’s vegan recipe for sweetcorn hiyashi | The new vegan

These cooled noodles in a salty-sour sweetcorn sauce are the perfect salad stand-in for hot summer days

In 2003, I had my first som tam salad in Bangkok’s searing 30-degree heat. It was crunchy and packed to the rafters with flavour, but, more importantly, it was cold. Until then, I’d been eating hot food in hot weather, but ever since I’ve been chasing that perfect cold summer meal. These cold hiyashi ramen come close for me. They’re ludicrously versatile (think salad plus sauce plus noodles), and the only “cooking” to be done is boiling the noodles; the rest is chopping, blending (the sauce) and assembling. It is truly summertime where the living is easy.