Miso Udon with Mushrooms and Seaweed
Instant udon built on miso, dried seaweed, and enough dried protein to count as dinner.
- calories
- 520
- weight
- 4.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 116
- protein
- 24 g
- serves
- 2, scales
- prep
- 2 min
- cook
- 8 min
- total time
- 10 min
- water
- 500 ml boiled
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Canister stove
- Alcohol / Esbit
- Backpacking
- Thru-hike
- Basecamp
- Winter / snow
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Dump and stir
Ingredients
| Dried udon noodles | 7 oz | the thin instant kind, not fresh vacuum packs |
|---|---|---|
| Miso powder | 2 tbsp | powder, not paste, so nothing leaks |
| Dried sliced mushrooms | 2 heaped tbsp | shiitake if you have them |
| Freeze-dried or dried tofu | 1/2 cup | koya-dofu breaks into cubes |
| Mixed dried seaweed | 3 tbsp | wakame, nori flakes, and a little dulse |
| Bonito powder | 2 tsp | |
| Kelp powder | 1 tsp | |
| Dried spring onion | 1 tbsp | |
| Sesame oil | 2 tsp | a sachet or a dropper bottle |
Method
- Boil 500 ml of water. Tip in the mushrooms, tofu, and seaweed and let them sit off the heat for three minutes to swell.
- Bring it back to a boil, add the noodles, and cook for the time on the packet. Four minutes for most instant udon.
- Pull the pot off the stove before adding the miso powder. Boiling flattens miso.
- Stir in the bonito, kelp, and spring onion. Finish with the sesame oil and let it stand a minute.
Instant noodles usually get their flavor from one salt packet. This gets it from four things that are also food: miso, bonito, kelp, and seaweed. The result is a broth with actual depth, and about twice the protein of a plain ramen dinner, mostly from the tofu and the fish powder.
Order matters more than technique here. The mushrooms and tofu need a head start in hot water or they stay leathery, and the miso goes in after the boil because heat kills what makes it taste like miso. The seaweed is doing the job of a vegetable, not a garnish, which is why there is so much of it. Cut it back if the flavor is too strong for you.
Packing
Two bags per meal. Dry mix in one, noodles in the other, since the noodles need to go in later than everything else. Sesame oil rides in a sachet inside the noodle bag.
Variations
- Swap the bonito for mushroom powder to make it vegan and vegetarian.
- A foil packet of tuna pushes it past 35 g of protein for long days.
- Cut the seaweed in half and make up the volume with dried carrot or cabbage if it tastes too much of the ocean.
https://slowerhiking.com/recipes/dehydrated-miso-udon-soup