Yakisoba

Noodles are one of my go-to meals to make, and yakisoba can easily adapt to whatever veggies I have on hand. Yakisoba recipes often call for green cabbage, onion, carrots, and pork belly. But when I’m not able to source pork belly, I find that thick-cut bacon (which I call for here) works just the same. As for the vegetables, mushrooms, peas, corn, bok choy, Broccolini, or whatever hearty green you have on hand would be delicious too.

For this recipe, just don’t skip on the garnish — it really makes the dish. The true star is the seaweed powder, aka aonori. It adds an umami vegetal component that would surely be missed if you were to leave it out. This ingredient may be a little bit harder to find, but you can buy it online. Or it’s easy to make at home! Using a package of your favorite toasted or untoasted seaweed snacks, break up a serving with your hand and blitz it in your food processor, Vitamix, or Nutribullet to a very fine powder. I like to make this in big batches for homemade furikake, and top with anything from rice bowls, noodles, you name it.

Many yakisoba packages come in sets of three or four individually packaged yakisoba noodles. Although “soba” is in the name, these aren’t the buckwheat variety you might be familiar with. They’re pale yellow in color and made of wheat.

To help with even cooking and to keep the long strands of noodles intact, I added a step to soak the individually packaged yakisoba noodle “cakes” before the stir-fry. I’ve tested the recipe with and without this step and, trust me, it yields a more evenly cooked noodle that won’t break up as it does when cooked directly from the square cake. If you can’t find yakisoba, try making this recipe with hydrated packaged udon. This is yaki udon which is also really delicious. 

When you buy yakisoba, it usually comes with flavor packages. Although there’s nothing wrong with these packages, you can also make the sauce from scratch. I love both methods.

This homemade yakisoba sauce is made of salty, sweet, and tangy components, with a little Western influence. Oyster sauce, soy sauce and ketchup are paired with tonkatsu sauce (or Worcestershire sauce), which adds a salty tang. I highly recommend you invest in a Japanese tonkastu sauce, but if you don’t have it but do already have Worcestershire sauce, please use that! Black pepper is key here — you can really feel the difference if you’re missing it. I mention adding a 1/4 teaspoon, but if you like that peppery-mildly spicy flavor, add 1/2 teaspoon and thank me later.