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 noodles are 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.
Making Udon noodle dough process 4
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.
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 for Tempura udon and Yaki Udon here along with recipes for Curry udon and cold 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.
Tips for Making Delicious Noodles
- Use flour that contains between 8-10% protein.
- Use soft water.
- Make salt water percentage 13% in summer, and 10% in winter, spring and autumn in between 10 to 13%.
- Use your heal for kneading. 50 times each and repeat the process 3 times.
- Rest the dough for at least 3 hours before rolling and cutting
- Cook noodles in plenty of boiling water.
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Udon noodles
Ingredients
- 15 g salt
- 140 ml water
- 300 g all purpose flour
- generous amount of corn or potato starch to dust the dough
soy sauce dipping sauce
- 1/4 cup dashi stock *7
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp mirin *8
sesame seed dipping sauce
- 1/4 cup sesame seeds
- 1/4 cup dashi stock
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp mirin
Instructions
Udon Noodles
- Dissolve salt into a jug of water.
- Place all purpose flour in a large bowl. Add the salty water gradually to combine with flour by using your finger or chopsticks. *1
- Try not to knead at this stage, rather making cramble like texture.
- After all water added, Knead them all together and make an large bowl shaped dough.
- Place the dough into a large ziplock bag and seal the bag. *2
- Kneading by stepping on the dough 50 times. *3
- Open the bag and fold them, re-seal the bag and stepping on 50 times again.
- Repeat this process three times.
- After three times take the dough out and shape into neat round ball. It should shiny and smooth.
- Leave it for at least 3 hours in room temperature.
- After three hours resting, take the dough out of the bag. Dust rolling board with corn starch or potato starch and place the dough over. *4
- Roll the dough out with a rolling pin from the centre to outer.
- The thickness of the dough should be 3mm(0.1 inch) thick.
- Then do accordion fold( dust enough amount of corn or potato starch the fold), and cut it with a sharp knife about 3mm(0.1 inch) thick from an edge. *5
- This recipe should make 4 serves of Udon noodles.
- Boil water in large pot and cook udon noodles for about 10 to 12 minutes. *6
- drain the cooking water using a strainer, and rinse the cooked noodles under running water.
- Remove excess water off and serve with a bowl of dipping sauce and yakumi of your choice.
Soy sauce dipping sauce
- Place all ingredients in a small saucepan, bring to boil over medium -high heat.
- Turn the heat off and cool it down.
sesame seed dipping sauce
- Grind the white sesame seeds.
- Place Dashi, soy sauce and mirin in a small sauce pan. Bring it to boil and turn the heat off.
- Add the soy sauce mixture into the grinder sesame seeds gradually to combine.
Thank you for the recipe! It tastes just like Udon in Japan! I made it with Spelt flour and it turned out exellent! I also used Kitchen Aid pasta machine to kneed it out to 3 mm thick and then cut it to approx 3mm width. I let it rest for 1h which was enough for pasta machine to work on the dough. I will definitely make this again!
Hi Cecilia, great alternative to use Spelt and your kitchenaid. I have bought a set of pasta attachment so I am looking forward to try to use those attachment 😀
Hi, please can someone tell me where you got the chopping board from??
Kind regards,
Sara
Hi Sara, which one?
I found the dough very difficult to roll out, so I cut the big chunk of dough into strips and it was much easier to roll out. I just cut the rolled- out strips down the middle and they were exactly the right size! This method definitely didn’t come out as pretty as they would have if I made them the same as the instructions, but they were delicious nonetheless 🙂 I added a spicy peanut butter sauce to them and it was sooo good! I’m never buying noodles from the grocery store again! 🙂
Loved these udon noodles, I made japanese pan noodles with them. The kneading technique was so much easier than kneading with my hands!😋
I made this recipe last night and it turned out great! The noodles were very tasty and easy to make. Plus, I love that I had enough noodles to cook some and freeze some for another day. I will definitely make this again in the future!
Thank you Kristen 😀
Thank you so much, we had a lot of fun with my 3yo daughter making udon, we won’t buy it at the stores anymore. It’s just so easy and delicious!
So i thought this was a great recipe but it did not work the first time so i tried it again this time in a pasta maker and it was delicious. I AM GRATEFUL FOR THE RECIPE
Hi kekemay I am glad it worked for you.
i dont know what i did wrong it turned out salty and I COULD NOT ROLL IT OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
Hi keke may, sorry to hear.
Easy to make and delicious. I love your recipes!
Thank you Vanessa 😀
very good
I doubled the recipe just in case my two teenagers were hungry, but the recipe turned out to be good for 4. And it turned out great! I wasn’t quite sure how many times to step on it and did 3×50 times. Rolling it out took the most effort I ended up cutting the dough a little too wide and had to stretch it out to get it thinner. I boiled it for 12-13 minutes before adding it into a soup and even though the noodles were sitting in the soup, it did not get mushy. Inexpensive and easy ! I will definitely make it again and again. Thank you!
Thank you Tonya 😀
Thank you for the recipe. The noodles turn out amazing every time. Very easy to make x
Hi Nicola great to hear ;D
Is this how you make ramen noodles too?
Hi Ezra, no the process making Ramen noodle is different.
What can you do to limit the salt intake
Hi Denise, one thing to remember is that when the Udon noodle is cooked in the water, a lot of salt will dissolve out of the noodles.
I tried it. I am in Canada so regardless of the weather and temperature, it always turned out yummy. thanks for the tips. It made all the difference
You are welcome Lin 😀
I am so happy to find this website. I live on a boat and simple tricks, like kneading the dough by stepping on it in a bag, means I can still make fresh noodles. Such a great tip! I’ll try it with bread dough too!
Hi Suzette, you are welcome 😀 When you made it please give us 5 star rating.
Hi – well-written and beautifully explained! Thanks for all the additional commentary.
I do, however, have a question about steps 6 and 7.
You say
“Kneading by stepping on the dough 50 times. *3
Open the bag and fold them, re-seal the bag and stepping on 50 times again.”
Does this mean it gets kneaded 100 times total? You also say to knead no more than 50, so I’m confused!
Also, do you fold the dough while it’s inside the ziplock each time you step on it? (I’m used to kneading bread dough with the heel of my hand – turn and fold each time…)
Thanks so much – I look forward to trying this!
Hi, no more than 50 times at times and fold the dough inside. I will upload an instruction video soon 😀
My husband is a chef and loves Asian Food, I’m saving this and hopefully can make it for him soon! Thank you for sharing.
Thank you and you are welcome 😀
I think I would rather dine into a japanese restaurant than make the noodles and the recipe. I would prefer to get a hot bowl of delicious ramen from Shokuji Sushi Restaurant. But thanks for giving me an idea how to do this.
Hi Helen, make sure you go to authentic Japanese restaurant. I found many so called “Japanese restaurant” are often run by other Asian country people and found their food are very different what we would eat in Japan. Yes, this is for those who don’t have Asian/Japanese grocery stores nearby 😀
Can semolina flour be used for udon noodles?
Are there egg noodles in Japanese cooking?
Hi David, semolina has high gluten and protein so I think it it is ok though I think the texture will be different? As semolina is coarse than all purpose flour.
I would like to make my own Udon.
I think I understand your instructions,
EXCEPT for:
“Make salt water percentage 13% in summer, and 10% in winter, spring and autumn in between 10 to 13%.”
What do you mean “make salt water percentage 13%” ???
It’s the ratio of salt to water. 1ml water = 1 gram. In the recipe 15g salt / 140 ml water = about 11%; so this is for spring and fall.