Vegan udon noodles with smoked tofu and cabbage

Vegan udon noodles with smoked tofu and cabbage

vegan udon noodles

So we have finally become home owners! Something we’ve been dreaming of for a long time. After a week of triaging, packing things into boxes, cleaning, moving, cleaning again and unpacking, we finally have a liveable setup, despite sleeping on a mattress on the floor and lunching on the dining room step from a makeshift cardboard table. We are bone tired yet happy and relieved that everything has gone more or less to plan.

Moving our cat, Tina, was one of the biggest sources of anxiety, but after a 15 minutes in the car and a few hours of sulking, she came to love this place really fast. When the weather was nice over the weekend, she refused to move from the sunny spot in the garden with the exception of frequent border patrols. She mustn’t have encountered any vicious cats (like the one she lived next to for the past 1.5 years) and she looks very pleased with herself and behaves like SHE owns the place 😛 . We are super relieved and loved watching her reaction to this house.

We have already met quite a few neighbours and a shopkeeper and everyone has been so nice and welcoming, eager to chat and share their best tips about the area. On our first morning here, I ventured out in search of food and came across a great multicultural greengrocer with a sprawling array of foods from all over the world. It sells Turkish pide bread, which takes me right back to my London days as there was a similar store at the end of my road and I lived on that bread!

In the last 3 days, we’ve already felt more at home here than we ever did in Henleaze and we look forward to becoming a part of the thriving local community, discovering all the running routes, and slowly adapting the house to our needs and styling it to our taste.

Speaking of taste, while this week we’ve been subsisting on a diet of Turkish bread, olives, muhammara and hummus. Once the oven got installed and levelled, I developed a hankering for some noodles. This simple udon dish makes for a perfect mid-weeker. It’s easy and straightforward to make (especially if you use wok ready udon noodles, like I did) and very satisfying to eat, with bags of umami thanks to smoked tofu, charred cabbage and mushrooms, garlic and ginger. It’s definitely a keeper! I hope you’ll agree! x

vegan udon noodles ingredients

vegan udon noodles ingredients chopped

vegan udon noodles tofu mince

vegan udon noodles wok

serves
2-3
PREP
10 min
COOKING
30 min
serves
2-3
PREPARATION
10 min
COOKING
30 min
INGREDIENTS
  • 75 ml / 5 tbsp all purpose soy sauce (I use Kikkoman)
  • 75 ml / 5 tbsp mirin
  • 15 ml / 1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
  • 1 garlic clove, finely grated
  • 2 tsp finely grated ginger
  • 2 tsp Sriracha, adjust to taste (optional)
  • 200 g / 7 oz firm (cotton not silken) smoked tofu, pressed
  • 2 tbsp high smoke point oil (I use rice bran)
  • 200 g / 7 oz savoy cabbage, chopped
  • 100 g / 3.5 oz shiitake mushrooms (or chestnut mushrooms), sliced
  • 3 spring onions / scallions, white part thickly sliced and green part thinly sliced
  • 400 g / 14 oz wok ready / precooked udon noodles (or 200 g / 7 oz dry)
  • 1 tsp toasted sesame oil
  • 2 tbsp toasted (and optionally crushed) sesame seeds, to garnish
METHOD
  1. In a small bowl combine the first six ingredients to create a marinade. Adjust the amount of ginger and Sriracha sauce to taste.
  2. Crumble well pressed tofu with your hands. Place it in a shallow container and pour 60 ml / ¼ cup of the marinade over it. Mix well. Allow the tofu to absorb all the marinade.
  3. Meanwhile, heat up the oven to 160° C / 320° F fan (or 180° C / 355° F on a fan setting) and grease or line a baking tray. Place marinated tofu on the baking tray. Bake for approximately 20-30 minutes, turning the tofu halfway through. Bake until golden brown and charred in places.
  4. 5 minutes before you are about to take the tofu out of the oven, heat up 2 tablespoon of oil in a wok.
  5. Once hot, throw in chopped cabbage, mushrooms and the white (and white-green) part of the spring onion. Stir-fry until the ingredients are no longer raw and get a bit of char in places.
  6. Add wok ready noodles. Stir-fry for another 1 minutes (if cooking your own noodles undercook them by 2 minutes). Stir in the rest of the marinade and baked tofu. Toss well to combine and stir-fry for another minute (wok-ready udon needs approximately 2 minutes in the hot wok in total).
  7. Divide between two bowls. Serve drizzled with sesame oil, topped with the green part of the spring onions and toasted (and crushed in a pestle and mortar if you like to release more aroma) sesame seeds.

NOTES
My recipe is an adaptation of this recipe.

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NUTRITIONAL INFO
calories
530
26%
sugars
9 g
9%
fats
20 g
28%
saturates
3 g
14%
proteins
22 g
43%
carbs
68 g
26%
*per serving
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5.0
7 reviews, 9 comments
REVIEWS & QUESTIONS
Filomena Benn:
I made this recipe and it is delicious.
Thank you
    Ania
    Ania:
    Thank you, Filomena, I am delighted to hear that. It makes me so happy to hear! Ania
James:
Perfect weeknight dinner. Loved it.
    Ania
    Ania:
    Thanks James, I am really happy to hear that! Ania
Monica:
This became an instant favorite of ours. Flavorful and nourishing on recent cold winter days, without being heavy. Comes together easily. Reminds us of some delicious udon we had in Honolulu.
    Ania
    Ania:
    Yay, thanks Monica, I am so happy to hear that you enjoyed this dish, it's one of my favs too! x Ania
D leone:
I make these all the time. Great recipe thank you
    Ania
    Ania:
    Aw thank you so much for letting me know. I am delighted to hear that you enjoy this recipe so much! Ania
Coz:
Great recipe!
    Ania
    Ania:
    Thanks so much, that's lovely to hear! x Ania
Lluki:
Add a bit of cornstarch to the tofu marinade for extra crunchiness
    Ania
    Ania:
    Sure, you can do if you want. Although, I would personally sprinkle the cornstarch on just before frying. Ania
Sibylle Steinpass:
Thanks for the great recipe. I tried it out today for dinner and although I made it with ordinary i.e. unsmoked tofu it was so delicious. I used gluten-free black rice noodles which combined nicely with the rest. I love your recipes. Thanks once more and best greetings from Germany, Sibylle
    Ania
    Ania:
    I'm so glad you liked it, Sibylle and thank you for taking the time to let me know that you enjoy my recipes - it means a lot! x Ania
Sally:
Although it doesn't sound like you'll have much free time, I hope there's a good sturdy spot to hang the hammock! That grocer sounds like the cherry on top.. they have yet to find out that their best customer has just moved into the neighbourhood ☺️🙃
    Ania
    Ania:
    Aw, thanks for all your super thoughtful comments, Sally! I may be busy but come summer, hammock is definitely coming out - no one is able to stop me :P ! I have even found a perfect spot for it in the garden! x Ania
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