Vegan Cold Somen Noodles with Dipping Sauce is an ideal Japanese seasonal dish that's perfect to eat in the hot and humid summer days! Silky and smooth somen noodles are served cold with a soy sauce base vegan dipping sauce that's also cold. It's prepared in the simplest and the authentic Japanese way to savor the somen noodles and the homemade vegan dipping sauce with a couple of aromatic & spicy condiments!*Vegan Cold Somen Noodles with Dipping Sauce is made with Vegan Mentsuyu (Concentrated Noodle Soup Base) that’s prepared in advance.*Total Time does NOT include the time to prepare Vegan Mentsuyu.
Prepare the dipping sauce. In a small serving bowl (but tall enough to hold the sauce), combine mentsuyu and water (see “How to Make Cold Dipping Sauce for Somen Noodles” in the “Notes.”) Mix well and keep it chilled in the fridge until serving.
Prepare the somen noodles. In a large pot, pour plenty of water (about 10x the weight of somen noodles) and let it boil.
Meanwhile, prepare an ice bath and set it aside (preferably in the fridge to keep it cold until serving.) Also, prepare the condiments of your choice (see the “Suggested Condiments” in the "Ingredients” section.)
Once the water is boiling, add somen noodles and cook for 2 minutes. To cook them properly, keep it at boil throughout and keep an eye on it to avoid overflowing.
Use a colander to drain. Immediately rinse with cold running water to remove the starch. Shake off the excess water then transfer the somen noodles to the ice bath to shock them.
Soon after the ice-bathing, start plating the somen noodles. There are a few different ways to plate (serve) somen noodles.Serving Method 1 (see the instruction photos on the recipe post!): Pick up a small amount of somen noodles (enough to be a bite size) from the ice bath. Strip off the water as much as possible then wrap the noodles around your finger. Gently drop them on a serving plate (or bowl.) Proceed to step 7.Serving Method 2: Use a colander to drain and shake off the excess water very well. Serve on a plate or bowl as is. (Noodles may stick to each other after a few minutes which becomes a bit inconvenient.) proceed to step 7.Serving Method 3: Serve directly from the ice bath (bring the bowl with the ice-bath and the noodles to the table.) Proceed to step 7. (At the table, pick up noodles from the ice water using chopsticks. Wait for the water to drip down, then dip into the dipping sauce. Note that the dipping sauce will be diluted as you keep dipping the noodles from the ice bath. For that reason, I’d suggest to prepare the sauce on a little bit saltier side or add more mentsuyu as needed.)
Transfer the cold dipping sauce to a small serving bowl. Serve immediately with your choice of condiments on the side.
Notes
Vegan Mentsuyu
Mentsuyu is concentrated Japanese noodle soup base. It’s such a versatile ingredient that you can make cold noodle dipping sauce and hot noodle soup for udon, somen and soba. You can also use as multipurpose seasoning for cooking and more.
The below are my suggestions for finding the right taste to your preference.
For lighter taste (my favorite), combine 2 tbsp/30 ml mentsuyu with 4 tbsp/60 ml water. Mix well. [6.1 oz / 90 ml total per serving] --- 1-part mentsuyu to 2-parts water
For darker taste, combine 3 tbsp/45 ml mentsuyu with 3 tbsp/45 ml water. Mix well. [6.1 oz / 90 ml total per serving] --- 1-part mentsuyu to 1-part water
Adjust the amount of mentsuyu and water to your taste.
Somen Noodles
Somen noodles are Japanese thin noodles made with wheat flour, salt and water.