Lightning Prep

Soba noodles made of

In Japan, where it gets plenty hot in the summer, cold soba noodles, served with a dipping sauce, are a common snack or light meal. Soba are brown noodles, made from wheat and buckwheat, and the sauce is based on dashi, the omnipresent Japanese stock. You would recognize the smell of dashi in an instant, even if you have never knowingly eaten it. It’s a brilliant concoction based on kelp, a seaweed and soba noodles made of bonito flakes.

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. Bring a large pot of water to a boil, and salt it. Cook noodles until tender but not mushy. Drain, and quickly rinse under cold running water until cold. Combine dashi or stock, soy sauce and mirin. Taste, and add a little more soy if the flavor is not strong enough.

Be the first to leave one. Get recipes, tips and offers in your inbox. Opt out or contact us anytime. About UsNYT Cooking is a subscription service of The New York Times. There’s something so appetizing about their long, dangly shape and ability to pair with countless sauces, soups, and assorted ingredients. We’re talking about noodles of course! If you’re used to considering noodles as one single mono-category, prepare to be astonished by the vast choices available.

Different compositions, shapes, lengths, and textures make each type of noodle unique and best suited for a handful of purposes. It’s easy to pick up a package of dry noodles and call it dinner, but the craft of noodle-pulling is steeped in tradition and worth discovering. The range of techniques and styles encompassed in the vast array of noodle dishes is seemingly infinite, and you could do worse than trying to eat your way through this list. If you love your food long, slippery, and capable of being swirled, then you had better stock up on the many variations of this delicious food. Fairly popular in the take-out game, lo mein, meaning stirred noodles, is a popular noodle dish from China’s Guangdong province, according to Taste Atlas. Noodles are first boiled, then mixed in with sauce and other ingredients. You’ll find add-ins such as cabbage, carrots, mushrooms, meat, and seafood.

First introduced by immigrants in the 1850s, it’s been a popular dish in Chinese restaurants in the U. Some are rounded into a thin, tubular shape whereas others lie flat. But they weren’t always made this way. LA-based chef Yoko Isassim, who was born in Seki, Japan, tells the outlet that, traditionally, women would knead it with their feet so that they could make use of their body weight to facilitate the task. They would often take it one step further and wear heavy backpacks to add more weight. Compared with soba noodles, which are also common in Japan, Japan-Guide. Udon can be served both hot and cold, which makes them common in dozens of preparations.

Since the ingredients to make soba are so simple, it comes down to their quality. It follows that the noodles hold an important place spiritually and are perceived to be balanced and nutritious. Much like udon noodles, soba is commonly served in both hot and cold preparations. Inaoka describes a typical recipe in Kyoto — seiro — which combines cold soba with wasabi, green onions, and a dashi soy sauce. If you’re eating the soba cold, be sure to save the cooking water as a nutritious broth to sip on. Meanwhile, the noodles can be enjoyed kake style in a hot broth. Mei fun refers to both rice vermicelli noodles and dishes that showcase the thin strands.

Mei fun is typical in cuisines across Asia, though its roots can be traced back to China a mere 2,000 years ago. The vermicelli is sold dry in nest-like bundles, which simply need to be rehydrated in hot water before they can be incorporated into recipes, according to The Spruce Eats. Because they are so delicate, as they absorb water they soften and develop the perfect amount of chewiness to complement various dishes. The thin noodles are definitely versatile, and you can add them to stir fries, soups, or even served chilled as a salad. According to The Spruce Eats, among the many preparations, Singapore mei fun, which doesn’t come from Singapore but from Cantonese cuisine, is a popular option. Rice vermicelli is tossed with curry powder, shrimp, pork, egg, and mixed vegetables, resulting in bright yellow noodles with colorful add-ins. Whereas rice vermicelli are thin, delicate strands, flat rice noodles are wider and, per their name, flat.

If you’ve ever enjoyed pad thai, then you’ve devoured flat rice noodles in the process. Once they’re boiled, you can toss them in a stir fry at the last minute, add them to soup, or serve them chilled for a filling salad. That’s right — munch on a bowl of these and you may as well be drinking from the elixir of life. Yi mein are light golden in color and owe their pleasantly chewy texture to soda water in the dough, as well as being fried before they are dried, per Gourmetpedia. Whether you’re eating the springy noodles with the hope of living forever or simply because you can’t get enough, yi mein is always a great choice. At special occasions they’re served with lobster, but chicken, shrimp, and mixed vegetables are all excellent alternatives. Knife-cut noodles, or dao xiao mian, are a delicious alternative to hand-pulled noodles, which originated in China’s Shanxi province in the 13th century, according to Week in China.

The method of preparation entails holding a mound of dough in front of you with one hand while you slice noodles straight into a pot of boiling water. Speed is of the essence, or else your noodles will cook unevenly, and Week in China notes that the best chefs can shave off 200 strands per minute. The outlet indicates that the glass noodles are relatively novel in Korea, only first produced just over 100 years ago. Although dangmyeon wasn’t an ingredient in original japchae recipes, it was quickly incorporated into the dish by the 1930s, according to 196 Flavors. The meat is often marinated in a sesame soy sauce before it is added to the rest of the elements. As with various other noodle dishes, japchae is easily enjoyed both hot and cold.