How to Make Japanese Tempura Soba

Tempura Soba is hot Soba noodle soup with Tempura.  Light Soba noodles in tasty soup could be a great everyday lunch.  With Tempura, the dish is hearty and fulfilling enough to be dinner too. There are a lot of Soba restaurants to get Tempura Soba in Japan (lucky for people there).  Even if you don’t have such a restaurant in your town, don’t worry, you can easily make this tasty and authentic dish yourself at home.

This is a video of me cooking and talking about how to make tempura soba noodles. It’s called soba and it’s made of buckwheat noodles served in a broth with tempura. Tempura is a Japanese dish that is a must-eat when you visit Japan. If you’ve ever had it before, you know how delicious it is. The problem is that most people just don’t know how to prepare it.

Soba is a popular Japanese food in the US, and dried Soba noodles can be found at most local supermarkets today.  One of the reasons why Soba is popular here is because Soba is much healthier than other noodles made from refined flours.  Soba has fewer calories and more nutrients such as Vitamin B, various minerals, and fiber.  Another reason is that Soba doesn’t contain any gluten.  The recent gluten free diet fever may also be contributing to the popularity of Soba noodles.

Not only is Soba healthy, but it tastes great, of course.  It has a wheaty, nutty, wholesome flavor.  It can be served cold, Zarusoba, or it is wonderful in hot soup just like here.  Hot Soba is for anytime, but there is a special dish eaten on New Year’s Eve, Toshikoshi Soba.  Because Soba noodles have no gluten, they can be cut more easily than other noodles. It is believed that eating Soba will cut misfortune of the previous year and bring good luck in the next year.

Tempura doesn’t have to be just shrimp.  You can use any ingredients you like, such as vegetables and fish.  Try this at home, you will love this nice and warm noodle soup!

Ingredients

• 4 cup Dashi
• 1/4-1/2 tsp salt
• 2 Tbsp Soy Sauce
• 3 Tbsp Mirin
• 2 Tbsp Sake
• 200g dried Soba noodles
• 4 green onions, thinly cut
• Shichimi Togarashi (hot pepper powder)
• 4 large shrimp
• 1/2 C (65g) cake flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1/2 C (120ml total) water with 1-2 ice cubes
• frying oil

Instructions

1. Heat Dashi to a boil, and add salt, Soy Sauce, Mirin, Sake. Cover and keep it warm.
2. Make shrimp Tempura. Remove shells from shrimp, and make small cuts on the inner side. In a medium bowl, mix cake flour, baking powder and salt together, add ice water, and stir with chopsticks a few times. Do not over mix. Dip shrimps in the batter and deep fry at high temperature at 375F (190C) until cooked. Set aside.
3. Cook dried Soba noodles according to the package. Add cooked Soba to the hot soup and let it simmer for a minute.
4. Divide noodles and soup into bowls, place cooked Tempura on top, and sprinkle on the chopped green onion. Add Shichimi if you like.