Japanese-style udon noodles, tofu, veggies, seaweed, and sansho berries
A base recipe to reproduce with variations of your own, and never get tired of stir-fried noodles.
Serves: 2
Preparation: 75 minutes (including 60 minutes soaking)
Cooking: 20 minutes
This recipe is pretty much my base for any stir-fried noodles: cooking the tofu or the meat substitute first, reserving, throwing in the onion, garlic, ginger and spices, cooking the vegetables, adding the noodles, then returning the tofu and finishing with whatever shall cook for less than a minute.
You can vary the meat substitute, although tofu does an excellent job here at absorbing the flavors. If I have a special flavored tofu, I re-heat it after serving, and place on top of the dish. You can vary the vegetables, although I recommend to use a root (like a carrot) and a leafy one (like cabbage). I like to match the size of my vegetable pieces to the size of the noodles I cook. With udon, like in the present recipe, I cut large matchsticks of carrot and cabbage. With ramen, I cut them smaller. Last, I rarely mix mushrooms and seaweed - to be honest it may just be a question of personal preference.
About sanshō berry
Sanshō berry is also called “Japanese pepper”. It’s similar to Chinese Sichuan pepper, and Nepalese timut, in that it will give a numbing effect to your tongue. They’re also close from a botanical perspective; they’re unrelated to pepper, they’re remotely apparented to citrus. And I find it to give a great twist to the dish, with a distinctive, strong citrus note. You can skip this ingredient if you’re unsure to like it. You can still give a citrus flavor by relying on vegan soy and ponzu sauce instead of just soy sauce. I’ll have to write about how much I like ponzu sauce in the future.
Ingredients
200 g pre-cooked udon noodles (you can use ramens or other Asian noodles if you don’t find udon)1
250 g firm tofu2
1 big carrot ~ 140 g
6 leaves of Chinese cabbage (any leafy cabbage will do)
2 yellow onions ~ 120 g
3 garlic cloves
A thumb-sized piece of ginger root
5 g of arame seaweed
6-10 sanshō berries (optional, will give a twist to the dish)
8 or more soup spoons of oil (any non-flavored oil will do, like colza, sunflower or canola)
10-12 soup spoons of soy sauce3
Up to 2 soup soon of mirin (optional)
Preparation
Recipes recommending to cook with a wok most of the times means the dish will cook fast. Read: you’ll have no time in-between adding two sets of ingredients. Same goes if you rely on a deep pan, the pace is a property of the dish, not of the ustensil. You want to have completed all the preparation steps before even heating your wok or deep pan.
Cook the arame seaweed as per its instructions; it usually consists in soaking for one hour, rinsing, then cooking in boiling water for 15 minutes; split in 2 portions
Peel the carrot, cut it in quarters, then in thick matchsticks; split them equally
Peel the garlic cloves, cut them in halves; split them equally
Peel the onions, reserve for both servings
Peel the ginger, cut it into thick matchsticks, split them equally
Wash the pre-cooked noodles, split them equally
Cut the tofu in halves, and reserve for both servings
Cut each onion in two, then slice them
Slice the garlic
Dice the tofu
For each serving, stack the cabbage leaves on top of each others; cut in halves, make thick matchsticks of the white part, and thin ones of the green part
Crush the sanshō berries
You should end up with twice the below prepared ingredients:
Cooking
Remember this recipe is written so you cook the same things twice, each for one serving. Do not throw all the prepared ingredients together — be sure to have split them according to the instructions in section Preparation.
Heat your wok on high flame/power, then add oil from the edge, making a circle; doing so, the oil will cover all the inner surface of the wok
Light-fry the tofu on at least two sides, adding a soup spoon of soy sauce in the middle of the process; reserve and repeat with the second portion of tofu
Add the carrot, onion, garlic and sansho berries
Stir regularly for 3 minutes
Add the thick cabbage matchsticks and the noodles, add a good dash of soy sauce (4-5 soup spoons)
Add a small dash or mirin (maximum 1 soup spoon, optional)
Stir well for 2 minutes
Return the tofu to the wok, add the thin cabbage matchsticks and the arame seaweed
Stir well for 1 minute
You're done with the first serving; repeat steps 3 to 8 for the second one.
You can serve immediately (definitely the recommended approach), or let it cool, refrigerate, and re-heat later in the micro-wave oven. It works well, and allows you to prepare several bowls ahead of friends or family visiting you. When I do so, I prepare each portion in its target serving bowl, and I seal with a plastic film before it finishes to cool. Note that the preparation time doesn’t grow linearly with the number of servings, while the cooking time does.
Enjoy!
If you’ve tried the recipe, and would like to comment (whether you loved it, or hated it) please do so. I’m welcoming ideas, even if these are non-vegan recipes I’ll have the challenge to “veganize”.
Here’s a tip before you go
If you're like me, and you tend to cook with too much oil, here's a tip: you can collect the excess of oil, and prepare a flavored salad (or seaweed) dressing with it, adding mustard and vinegar.
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Be cautious: udon noodles are made of wheat, which is a known allergen
Be cautious: tofu is made of soy, which is a known allergen
Be cautious: soy sauce is made of soy (as its name suggests) and wheat; both are known allergens