Easy Dinner: Yaki Udon Recipe
Yaki Udon is a Japanese stir-fried noodle dish, made of chewy udon noodles (thick white noodles) stir-fried in a savoury sauce with veggies and meat. Yaki means grilled, and udon refers to the noodle type. In southern Japan after World War II, when food was scarce, the owner of a noodle restaurant turned to udon noodles. He was trying to make yakisoba (another Japanese noodle dish) but regular noodles were unavailable! So this was the start of the Yaki Udon stir fry dish, which is now an easy recipe that is very popular when it comes to Japanese cooking!
Why You’ll Love This Yaki Udon Recipe
Full of Veggies + Hearty: This recipe uses udon noodles, which are thick and chewy noodles (the type that are great for slurping in soup)! These noodles always leaving me feeling super satisfied as compared to eating more of a thinner noodles. It’s also full of different vegetables like cabbage, bell pepper, mushroom, green peas, onions and so on. Because of the variety of veggies, it’s quite versatile to swap different add-ins here too. It’s a great way to use up leftover veggies or sub different ones altogether and it still comes together deliciously.
Meal Prep: Noodle and pasta dishes are some of the best to meal prep! Since you can get different spices, vegetables and grains in one go, I enjoy making a large amount of noodles, storing them in an airtight container for freshness and eating the extra portions for the next few days or packing it for work/school.
Soy Free, Gluten Free or Low Sodium Friendly: Many recipes with soy sauce are higher in sodium, and soy sauce contains gluten and soy. If you’re looking for a lower sodium option, tamari has less sodium than soy sauce. Coconut aminos, if you can find them in asian grocery stores, has even less sodium than both of the alternatives! For a gluten free option, go with tamari or coconut aminos, and for a soy free option go with just coconut aminos.
What’s in this Udon Noodle Recipe?
So for today, let’s go through the components of this recipe:
Meat: There is usually some sort of ground meat in this recipe. But today, we will be using Beyond Meat patties, crumbled into a “beef.” You can replace it with your choice of protein – another vegan meat that crumbles like beef, or perhaps tofu. The taste would definitely not be as flavourful with tofu, since burger patties do have flavourings added in. But it could work as a substitute if you just want a quick noodle stir-fry.
Veggies: The vegetables we use today include purple onions, green onions, bok choy, green bell peppers, mushrooms and snow peas. I’ve seen most of the recipes using shiitake mushrooms, green onion, green cabbage, snow peas and carrots.
Noodles: Udon noodles are super thick with a chewy texture, and not too difficult to separate from the ton of other noodle varieties at the supermarket. This recipe is mainly for udon, but you can also try it out with different noodles. For example, using soba noodles with buckwheat flour that are gluten free. (Which wouldn’t be yaki udon anymore … but I’m sure will still taste great)!
Sauce Ingredients
Yaki Udon sauce is a savory sauce that usually consists of soy sauce, rice vinegar, sugar, oil, dry sherry/mirin and oyster sauce. I didn’t have mirin or oyster sauce on me, but was able to make up for it with some more tamari and more sweetener. Rather than soy sauce, I did use tamari for a lower sodium option. For a gluten free option, use tamari or coconut aminos. These are all found in an asian grocery store. Yaki Udon usually has a mixture of light and dark soy sauce, or just dark (which just gives it a much darker brown color and has more sodium) but you can use regular soy sauce too.
For the sugar, you can try to use some pure maple syrup or agave if you don’t have access to the coconut sugar. The recipe is not perfectly authentic because the recipe is veganized. However, the taste is still great even when substituting seasonings and spices in different ways.
Yaki Udon Recipe Notes
- If you’re into making your own fresh udon noodles, check out this link on how to make it at home! I prefer to buy the dried version and cook them at home for convenience.
- I love to mix it up and add different flavourings into the sauce ingredients. For example, try adding a drizzle of sesame oil into the sauce or to toss into the noodles!
- Make sure to cook the dry udon noodles in hot water according to the package instructions before using in this recipe. Once they are cooked, drain the noodles under cold water to keep their chewy texture.
- If you’re looking for a soy-free option, go with coconut aminos on a 1:1 ratio substitution for soy sauce.
- Bonito flakes, sesame seeds and pickled red ginger are options for serving on top of yaki udon noodles. However, bonito flakes are not vegan (they are made of fish) and dried shiitake mushrooms are an alternative for vegans. These toppings can be found at Asian grocers.
More Recipes You’ll Love
Mediterranean Braised Eggplant & Chickpeas
Chinese Stir Fry Eggplant and Potatoes
Creamy Green Avocado Spinach Pasta
If you make this Yaki Udon recipe, leave a comment and star rating! Don’t forget to tag your photos @peanut_palate on Instagram. Enjoy!
Yaki Udon Recipe
Equipment
- Stovetop Pan
Ingredients
For the Sauce
- 2¼ tbsp tamari Sub: soy sauce
- 1½ tsp coconut sugar Sub: brown sugar
- 1 tsp white wine vinegar
- 1¼ tsp rice wine vinegar
For the Noodles
- 1 Beyond Meat patty, cut into pieces pieces and "crumbled" to resemble ground beef. Sub: any other veggie "meat" patty you may have. Also tofu can work, will just have a different taste.
- 1 small purple onion
- 2 small bok choy, stems removed
- ½ cup snow peas
- ½ cup green bell pepper, thinly sliced lengthwise
- ¼ cup shiitake mushrooms, sliced
- 1 green onion, chopped
- ⅓ cup shredded green cabbage
- ⅓ cup thinly sliced carrots (like "matchsticks") I didn't have any on hand, but traditionally they should be used!
- 1 200g pack udon noodles
- 1 tbsp oil any neutral tasting oil would work better. eg. grapeseed oil, canola oil, etc.
Instructions
- Make sure the udon noodles are cooked accordingly to the instructions on the package. They do usually come pre-cooked, but you have to put them into boiling water for a few minutes as the instructions on the package say. Once they are cooked, drain the water and rinse the noodles under cold water. Set aside.
- In a small bowl, mix together all sauce ingredients. Set this aside.
- In a stovetop pan over medium-high heat, add the oil.
- Add in the "beef," and stir it around for a minute.
- Add in all the veggies, and stir this around for another minute.
- Add in the cooked (and drained of excess water) noodles, as well as the sauce. Stir fry for another few minutes.
- Serve hot!
Notes
- Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to three days.
