A warm bowl of Vegan Udon Noodle Soup is a vegan version of the traditional Japanese comfort food that's prepared authentically minus the use of bonito flakes and/or high fructose corn syrup and other additives. This kombu dashi based vegan udon noodle soup tastes very clean and delicate which is a perfect match with any udon or somen noodles.*The default recipe yields 3 servings of hot udon noodles.**The recipe requires Kombu Dashi prepared in advance (see the link in the ingredients and/or notes.)***The Total Time does NOT include the time to prepare kombu dashi.
Start boiling water in a medium pot (or large one for dried udon noodles) for cooking udon noodles.
In the meantime, prepare the vegan udon tsuyu broth. Place the prepared kombu dashi in a sauce pan. Cover it and cook at medium high heat until a gentle boil.
Once the kombu dashi is at a gentle boil, reduce the heat to medium. Add in light soy sauce, mirin, sake and sea salt. Continue to cook for 1-2 minutes (uncovered) until the alcohol from mirin and sake is evaporated. Adjust the heat as necessary. Reduce the heat to medium low to keep it warm until the udon noodles are done.
Once the water is boiling, start cooking frozen udon noodles.For frozen udon: cook udon noodles for 1-2 minutes. Once udon noodles are cooked, transfer to the serving bowl.For dried udon: cook udon noodles according to the instructions on the package. keep your eye on it as it tends to overflow. Once the udon noodles are cooked, use a colander to drain and rinse with running water to remove some starch and stop the cooking. Shake off the excess water.
Serve.For frozen udon: simply pour the udon tsuyu broth over the noodles in the serving bowl.For dried udon: pour boiling water (prepared separately) over the cooked udon noodles in the colander to reheat the noodles. Shake off the excess water then transfer to a serving bowl and pour the udon tsuyu broth over. Top with scallion and a dash of shichimi pepper for some heat (optional.)
Notes
Vegan Udon Tsuyu Broth
Kombu Dashi
It’s easy to use my Cold Brew Kombu Dashi recipe as a base to make this vegan udon tsuyu broth.
If using my Simmered Kombu Dashi, start with 1100 ml water / 37 fl oz purified water and 11 g / 0.4 oz kombu which should make about 960-1000 ml/32-34 fl oz (4 to 4 1/4 cups) kombu dashi that you can use for this recipe.
The cold brew one is super easy to make but takes 8-10 hours (or overnight) soaking. On the other hand, the simmered one takes only about 1 hour (5 minutes prepping, 30 minutes soaking and 25 minutes cooking.)
Light Soy Sauce
Light soy sauce is a type of Japanese soy sauce that has lighter color but contains more sodium than the regular soy sauce.
Some Japanese sea salt may contain foreign sea salt but the ones I recommend is 100 % domestic Japanese sea salt.
1 tsp of the Japanese sea salt I use measures about 5 g.
Feel free to substitute with other sea salt.
Adjusting The Flavor
If you don’t want to use sake, you may omit it.
If you want to control the saltiness, use more/less sea salt.
Serving Size
The default Vegan Udon Tsuyu Broth recipe yields enough for 3 servings of hot udon noodle soup (about 1000 ml.)
1 serving of vegan udon tsuyu broth is about 300-330 ml/10-11 fl oz.
How to Store Vegan Udon Tsuyu Broth
You can store the leftover in a container with a lid and keep in the fridge for 2-3 days or in the freezer for up to 3 weeks for the best flavor. Frozen vegan udon tsuyu broth can be thawed in the fridge for 36-48 hours or at a room temperature for a shorter time.
Choice of Udon Noodles
You can use any udon noodles of your choice; dried, frozen, or fresh.
I use frozen sanuki-style (thick) udon for the chewy texture.
Topping Suggestions
The simplest way to serve udon noodle soup is with scallions. Other choices are:
shichimi pepper (Japanese seven-spice blend chili pepper flakes)