In the mood for some delicious Japanese noodles? Whether you’re looking to try your hand at a new yakisoba recipe, on the hunt for ramen, or simply exploring different noodle recipes, these are sure to delight!
Japanese Noodle Recipes
Let’s start with one of my favorites – Yakisoba! Yakisoba is very easy to make at home. Although Chinese noodles are used, the dish is entirely Japanese in origin. Not only is this a deliciously seductive Japanese stir fry, but it is very easy to make and a great way to get kids to eat a lot of vegetables painlessly!
Another favorite is my Kishimen Noodles recipe. Kishimen is a flat, wide quick-cooking udon noodle called hirauchi. While my recipe is the traditional variety, a Nagoyan friend recently told me that Fried Ebi (shrimp) Curry Kishimen is a great way to insert a modern twist!
Until I lived in Nagoya, I thought I preferred less salty, lighter-colored misos, on the sweeter side. But the first time I had Misonikomi, another Nagoyan specialty, and tasted the deeply red and pungent hatcho (red) miso, my miso taste preferences definitely changed! I love making my kishimen noodle recipe, but this one might be even better.
And of course if you know me, you know how much I love Osechi (so much so, I wrote an Osechi cookbook!) In keeping with tradition, I created a recipe for toshikoshi soba (year’s-passing soba). This dish is supposed to be the last food to touch your lips on New Year’s Eve.
Japanese Noodles in the Summer
I live in California, so come summer time, I’m not one to want to spend a lot of time in a hot kitchen. One of my go-to Japanese noodles recipes for days like that is my trefoil and shimeji mushroom pasta. It’s a quick and delicious recipe, and you can sub out the Shimeji mushrooms for any of your choice!
There’s little better in the summer than a slurp of cold somen, Japan’s thinnest noodle, made from wheat. As a hot dish, somen is known as nyumen; cold, it’s called hiya-somen or hiya-mugi, and is traditionally eaten from early July to mid-August.
Ramen Recipes
Of course I can’t create a Japanese noodles round-up without including my favorite Ramen recipes! Naturally we first start with creating a basic chicken stock. This is a simple yet delicious stock base to make for any of your Ramen recipes.
Ramen has three main tastes: soy sauce, salt or miso (fermented soybeans). In this recipe, I use the basic stock mentioned above and salt flavoring. This recipe uses a traditional ramen ingredient, namely menma (Manchurian wild rice stems), along with fishcake (naruto), spinach, lard, and green onion or Japanese leek. The garnishes definitely add a nice touch to the salt flavoring.
If you’re interested in the history of Ramen, I have a great post on that, which includes even more Ramen recipes!
You truly can’t go wrong with any of these Japanese noodle recipes. I’d love to know in the comments – which recipe will you try first?
