Udon Noodles   An Easy Step By Step Guide - Chopstick Chronicles (2024)

A perfect recipe to cook with little kids at home: fun, simple and delicious. Just follow these simple steps with us. Udon noodles are a popular Japanese food. Use these fresh noodles to make a traditional udon noodle soup or stir fried udon noodles.

Learn how to make Udon Noodles with simple ingredients such as flour and eggs. You can do it easily at home!

What are Udon Noodles?

Udon noodles are simply Japanese wheat noodles. You may think are udon noodles the same as ramen noodles? Although they are both made from wheat, there are differences. Udon is thicker and ramen noodles are made with egg, which is what gives them a slightly yellow hue. Udon noodlesare readily available from supermarkets in dry form, and also from Asian or Japanese grocery stores in frozen form.But did you know you can make it at home quite easily? The ingredients are probably even things you already have in your pantry.

Three simple ingredients to make Udon noodles

Making Udon noodles only requires a few ingredients: flour, water, and salt. Also it is quite simple to make. And therefore, it is very important to choose the right ingredients.

1. Flour

Any flour that has protein content between 8-10% is suitable to make Udon noodles. Flour that has less than 8% protein, is good for cooking cakes and pastries but is not good for noodles. I used 9% protein content wheat flour which I bought from a local Japanese grocery store in Brisbane. All purpose flour generally has 10 to 12% so it is good to use.

2. Water

The tap water in Japan is soft water. So we need to use similar water. I live in Brisbane, Australia and the water is hard in comparison. I used filtered water for this reason. If you don’t have a filter, you can always boil the water and let it cool down.

3. Salt

Salt is added to tighten the gluten and harden the dough. The dough texture and hardness depends on the temperature. In order to maintain a certain level of hardness of the dough, the salt percentage is controlled between 13% (summer) and 10% (winter).

90% of the salt added to make Udon dough will elute into boiling water when the udon noodle is cooked.

Fun part – making the dough for the udon noodles

When you have gathered all the right ingredients, the fun part begins starting with mixing the saltwater and the flour. Add the saltwater to the flour and knead it. And this is the fun part: put the dough in a ziplock bag and step on it about 50 times!!

50 times only

Although stepping on the dough makes the udon noodle soft and chewy, too many steps makes them too chewy and you may end up having to cook the udon for longer. So the right amount of steps is 50 times.

Set down

After the dough has been kneaded, it is bouncy and elastic. In this state, it is hard to roll out the dough. So it is necessary to let the dough rest for at least 3 hours in order to make the dough soft enough to roll and cut.

Cutting the udon noodles dough

Roll out the dough to about 3mm (0.1 inch) thick and make three accordion folds. Then dust a generous amount of potato starch over it and using a sharp knife, cut the folded dough about 3mm (0.1 inch) from the edge. Udon noodles will absorb water while it is being cooked, so cut it thinner than cooked noodle thickness.

Cooking Udon noodles

It requires 100 g Udon noodles to 1 litre (0.26 gal) of water. There are two reasons for using this large amount of water. 1. Because the salt content will be removed. Remember, 90% of the salt content will dissolve into the cooking water. 2. The udon noodles will not stick together in a lot of hot water.

See Also

Simple Udon Noodle Soup (Kake Udon) | SudachiChicken Udon Soup (鸡肉乌冬面)Udon Noodles Stir Fry with Kimchi SauceEasy One-Pot Vegan Udon Noodle Soup Recipe

Two delicious dipping sauces

Freshly made and cooked udon noodles can be served straight with two delicious dippings with Yakumi. In the photo below, the one on the left is soy sauce base and on the right is sesame sauce.

What is Yakumi?

Yakumi is Japanese natural condiments. They help to work up an appetite and also bring extra fragrance to your cooking. By itself, some of Yakumi tend to have a strong pungent smell or taste. Wasabi is a well known Yakumi. My favourite is Shiso leaf and Yuzu. Mitsuba, Myoga, Shoga(ginger) are also Yakumi.

Other recipes that use Udon noodles

Udon can be served hot or cold. One of the most common ways to eat udon in Japan is with tempura. Tempura shrimp goes so well with the light soup broth that is served with udon noodles. Another easy and delicious way to serve the noodles is to stir fry with some vegetables and a protein source. This is called Yaki udon. I like to use vegetables such as carrot, cabbage, mushrooms, and spring onions along with tofu, pork, seafood, chicken, or beef. Sprinkle with some sesame seeds and green onion for a really delicious dish. This makes for a filling and tasty meal suitable for serving a large group or using as a meal prep dish. You can find the recipes forTempura udonandYaki Udonhere along with recipes forCurry udonandcold udon salad.

How to store?

It is better to cook the noodles when they are freshly made. It can be kept in the fridge for a few hours but if you are not going to eat straight away, cook it and divide into one serve, wrap with cling wrap and place in a ziplock bag. They will keep for about a month in the freezer. When ready to reuse, put them in boiling water for a minute or so.

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