Curry Udon is hot Udon noodles in a curry soup and is one of the popular items on menus at Udon restaurants in Japan. These hearty noodles are loved by a lot of Japanese people even though it is not really like the more traditional clear Udon soup. From time to time, especially in colder months, everyone craves the warmth of rich and heavy flavors of Curry dishes, like Curry Rice and Curry Udon. Although making authentic Curry Udon is not as simple as just replacing rice with Udon, it is quite easy to make restaurant-style Curry Udon to serve at home.
Udon restaurants can make excellent curry soup because of their Dashi. Dashi is the biggest part of the taste for Udon dishes. Restaurants already have great Dashi for other menu items, so of course their curry soup tastes great too. That means that you can make it at home if you make your own good Dashi. You can use our regular Dashi with Katsuobushi bonito flakes or Ichiban Dashi with a combination of Katsuobushi and Konbu sea kelp. There are also other seasonings in the soup such as Soy Sauce, Mirin and Sake, which are not usually used in regular Japanese curry.
People, including us, often make Curry Udon at home using leftover curry from last night’s Curry Rice (see Curry Udon Recipe with leftover Japanese curry), and there is nothing wrong with that. Often, though, to make it quickly, people will add some water to the curry to dilute it, add some noodles, and that’s it for Curry Udon at home. That’s still pretty good – the curry flavor is so strong that you can get away with a shortcut like that, or so you (want to) think. However, proper curry soup for Curry Udon has a more delicate flavor from additional Japanese ingredients such as Dashi and seasonings, and that brings it up a level from just using up leftover curry. Once you taste it, you will know the difference.
When you are thinking about making Curry Udon at home next time, take a couple of extra steps and you will get a restaurant quality dish for your family.
Curry Udon Recipe
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Ingredients
- 1/2 brown onion
- 1/2 carrot
- 1 green onion
- 1 Tbsp potato starch or corn starch
- 1 Tbsp water
- 2 servings Udon noodles frozen or dried
- 2 cups Dashi
- 1 Tbsp Soy Sauce
- 1 Tbsp Sake
- 1 Tbsp Mirin
- 1/2 lb thinly sliced beef
- 2 cubes Japanese curry mix
Instructions
- Slice brown onion thinly. Cut carrot into 2″ long match sticks. Slice green onion diagonally. Mix potato starch and water in a small bowl. Set aside.
- Cook Udon in boiling water for a few minutes or to a preferred doneness. Set aside.
- Heat Dashi in a pot at medium heat to just starting to boil, turn down to low heat, and add Soy Sauce, Sake, Mirin. Add brown onion and carrot, and cook until tender, then add beef. After beef turns color, skim the fat and scum from the surface of the soup. Add curry sauce mix, and stir until curry mix is dissolved.
- Add potato starch slurry to the soup and stir well. When the curry soup has thickened, add Udon to the soup, and cook until Udon gets warm.
- Top with sliced green onion before serving.
