Udon Noodle Soup (Kake Udon)

Ingredients

• 2⅓ cups dashi (Japanese soup stock) (use standard Awase Dashi, a dashi packet or powder, or Vegan Dashi)
• 1 Tbsp mirin
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1½ Tbsp soy sauce
• ⅛ tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt (plus more, to taste)
• ⅓ cup mentsuyu (concentrated noodle soup base) (or enough to make 2½ cups, 600 ml of soup; each brand is different, so follow your bottle‘s instructions for hot udon soup (うどん or めんのかけつゆ); I used Kikkoman Koidashi Hontsuyu; you can make my Homemade Mentsuyu) 2½ 600
• 2⅓ cups water (for my bottle‘s mentsuyu-to-water ratio of 1 to 7; please adjust the water based on your bottle‘s dilution ratio for hot udon soup)
• 1 Tbsp mirin
• 2 servings udon noodles (1.1 lb, 500 g frozen or parboiled udon noodles; 6.3 oz, 180 g dry udon noodles; or 10.6 oz, 300 g Homemade Udon Noodles) 1.1 500 6.3 180 10.6 300
• toppings of your choice (thinly sliced green onion/scallion, shichimi togarashi (Japanese seven spice), and more options in the blog post)

Instructions

1. To Prepare the Homemade Broth
2. In a medium saucepan, add 2⅓ cups dashi (Japanese soup stock), 1 Tbsp mirin, 1 tsp sugar, 1½ Tbsp soy sauce, and ⅛ tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt.
3. Bring the broth to a gentle simmer. Once simmering, remove the pot from the heat. Cover with a lid and set aside.
4. To Prepare the Quick Broth (optional)
5. Follow the instructions on your bottle of concentrated mentsuyu for the correct dilution ratio for noodle soup broth (shown here as めんのかけつゆ).
6. Combine the water, mentsuyu, and mirin in a medium saucepan. For the brand of mentsuyu that I use, I add 2⅓ cups water, ⅓ cup mentsuyu (concentrated noodle soup base), and 1 Tbsp mirin. Bring it to a simmer over medium heat. Once simmering, remove the pot from the heat. Cover with a lid and set aside.
7. To Cook the Udon Noodles
8. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. When the water comes to a full rolling boil, add 2 servings udon noodles and cook according to the package instructions. The brand of frozen udon noodles I use requires reheating them for 1 minute. Using chopsticks, stir the noodles to loosen them up. For fresh noodles, see the cooking instructions in my Homemade Udon Noodles recipe.
9. When the noodles are done, drain them in a colander or scoop them up with a fine-mesh strainer. Serve the hot udon noodles in individual bowls.
10. To Serve
11. Pour the hot broth over the noodles and top with thinly sliced green onion and shichimi togarashi for a spicy kick (optional). For a more substantial lunch or dinner, you can top it with tempura, beef, fish cake and toasted mochi, tofu, Inari age, or vegetables. Watch the video above for 4 variations!
12. To Store
13. You can keep the udon noodles and broth separately in airtight containers and store them in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.