Cold Udon Noodles with Summer Vegetables

Summer is best for cold udon noodles. Just top the boiled udon with fresh summer vegetables and pour flavorful noodle soup. It's simple and easy recipe.

When it comes to summer, cold udon is the best. Even if you have not much appetite, you can eat it up as it's so refreshing.

Okra, tomato, and shiso(Japanese herb), these colorful, sticky and juicy vegetables match well with thick fat udon noodles.

Recommend this recipe for
• Someone who love Japanese food
• Someone who wants to learn how to make cold udon noodles
• Someone who is looking for variations of cold udon noodles

Even if you are new to udon noodles, that's ok. I will show you how to make it with great details so please stay with me!

Udon noodles

Udon is fat chewy Japanese noodles made from wheat flour, water, and salt.

You can buy udon noodles at an asian grocery store with fresh, frozen or dried. Fresh and frozen udon are already boiled at the process so boiling time is short like a couple minutes. On the other hand dried udon noodles takes longer like 10 minutes.

We eat both hot and cold, but in the hot summer, cold udon demand increases.

How do you eat cold udon?

In general, there are 2 ways to eat cold udon.

• Dip udon noodles in a noodle soup. This type of udon is called Zaru udon.
• Pour a noodle soup over the udon noodles like this recipe.

Zaru udon is most simple cold udon. Just noodles and some toppings such as chopped green pepper and wasabi.

Other type of cold udon has so many variations. If you have cold udon and mentsuyu then other ingredients can be anything.

Mentsuyu

Mentsuyu is Japanese soup base which is used for both udon and soba noodles.

Basic ingredients are soy sauce, mirin, dashi(katsuobushi, or kombu), and water. It is full of umami and flavor from katsuobushi(or kombu). You can make it from scratch but we usually use store-bought one.

It's very salty when you taste it as it is, so you have to dilute it with water when you use it. Follow the instructions on the bottle to add water as it depends on the brand.

📋 Ingredients

Here are the ingredients(amounts is in recipe card below).

• Vegetables　>> Tomato, okra, shiso(Japanese herb)
• Atsuage (deep fried tofu)
• Udon noodles
• Mentsuyu

Atsuage is deep fried tofu and added as a protein source. You can eat it without cooking as it is tofu.

This udon noodles is frozen one. It's handy, and quick to boil so I always keep some packs in the freezer.

Plant Based Mentsuyu　

Mentsuyu is almost always made with katsuobushi dashi so if you are a vegan or vegetarian, you have to substitute dashi with vegan dashi.

Try this recipe : put vegan dashi(4cup), 2or3 tablespoon soy sauce, and 2or3 tablespoon in a pot and bring it to a boil.

🔪Step by step instructions

Now you have all the ingredients(amounts is in recipe card below), so let't start cooking!

1. Prepare ingredients　>> Cut tomato, shiso, atuage into bite size pieces. Boil okra for 2 minutes, let it cook and cut into bite size pieces.
2. Boil udon noodles >> Boil udon noodles according to the instructions on the package. If you use frozen noodle, it would take a couple minutes to boil.
3. Rinse and drain >> Rinse and drain boiled udon noodles under cold water.
4. Place on a plate >> Place udon noodles, okra, tomato, shiso, atsuage and toppings of your choice on a plate
5. Mentsuyu >> Dilute mentsuyu with water(follow the instructions on the bottle) and serve with udon

Here is fresh summer cold udon noodles! Pour the mentsuyu over the udon, mix them up and enjoy!

Variations

You can enjoy various variations by adding other stuff such as healthy seaweed, boiled egg and so on. Here are my favorite ingredients for cold udon noodles.

• Nagaimo(chinese yam)
• Natto
• Mekabu(seaweed)
• Wakame(seaweed)
• Pickled plum
• Boiled egg
• Canned tuna

Nagaimo, natto and mekabu are sticky. If you don't mind sticky food, mix them together and place on top of boiled udon noodles. It's super sticky but so healthy and yummy! This is my favorite as well.

This recipe works for soba noodles as well. If you love soba more than udon, please swap the noodles.

Thanks for Stopping By

How did you like this simple Japanese udon noodles recipe?

It's so easy as it only takes 10 minutes, and healthy with plenty of vegetables. I would be happy if you will add it to your summer recipe.

Thank you for taking time to read my blog♡ If you’ve tried this recipe(or any other recipe on the blog), please give it a star rating below!

Also feel free to leave comments if you have any questions. I love hearing from you!

Chef JA Cooks is a Japanese food blog which share simple and healthy Japanese home cooking recipes include vegan and vegetarian. From traditional Japanese recipes to modern recipes with step by step instructions.

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