We partnered with Mizkan™ Rice Vinegars and Sauces to bring you this post. As always on The Woks of Life, all opinions are our own. Enjoy!
What Is Yakisoba?
Yakisoba is a Japanese stir-fried noodle dish consisting of vegetables and sometimes meat, served as either a main dish or side dish. Japanese cooks make this dish at home, but it’s also a popular item in street food stalls, diners, and snack shops. Yakisoba is usually cooked on a flat griddle or hot plate, mixed with paddles that look exactly like what you’d use to spackle some drywall! This may sound strange, but it allows cooks to make yakisoba in large quantities, folding together all the ingredients quickly and efficiently. At home, we used our wok to cook up this yakisoba, but you could also use a large griddle if you have one, a cast iron pan, or a large non-stick frying pan. The best tool we’ve found for mixing everything together is either a large wok spatula or a pair of tongs.
Creating A Tasty Yakisoba Sauce
For a simple dish of noodles and vegetables, the key to creating lots of flavor is mixing up a delicious sauce. There are just 4 yakisoba sauce ingredients for this vegetable yakisoba recipe: ponzu sauce, mirin, oyster sauce (or in this case, a vegetarian oyster sauce), and Worcestershire sauce. I’ll go into a couple of the ingredients that might be a little less familiar to Woks of Life readers. Mizkan Ponzu Citrus-Seasoned Soy Sauce is a new ingredient in our kitchen! When the folks over at Mizkan (Japan’s #1 Ponzu brand: Mizkan) sent us this magical sauce, we immediately loved the flavor, which is similar to soy sauce, but with hints of citrus. The intense savory umami flavor, complemented with hints of lemon and orange is SO GOOD. It took this vegetable yakisoba to the next level, but we’ve also been loving it on its own as a dipping sauce for dumplings or pot stickers. Mirin is a Japanese sweet rice wine and a staple in Japanese kitchens. We used Mizkan’s Mirin Sweet Cooking Seasoning, which offers a balance of sweet, sour, and bitter flavors. Mizkan has been around for over two centuries, and today they’re Japan’s top maker of rice vinegar and ponzu sauce, as well as many other delicious sauces: Mizkan. Their products are available at Walmart and other retailers here in the U.S., making tasty and authentic Japanese dishes accessible to home cooks!
What Kind of Noodles Are Yakisoba?
You may already know that soba in Japanese refers to buckwheat noodles, those dark grey/brown noodles usually served with broth or dipping sauce. However, yakisoba noodles don’t look anything like buckwheat noodles. They’re made with an alkaline dough (which gives them that signature yellow hue) of wheat flour, water, and kansui (lye water). They look almost like a fresh version of the packaged ramen noodles we all ate in college. Just make sure you’re buying noodles specifically labeled “Yakisoba.” Avoid fresh ramen noodles, which are meant for use in soup.
Vegetable Yakisoba: Recipe Instructions
In a small bowl, mix together the Mizkan Mirin, Mizkan Ponzu sauce, oyster sauce, and Worcestershire sauce until thoroughly combined. Prepare all your vegetables. For a vegan yakisoba, you could add pan-fried tofu, and also be sure to substitute vegetarian oyster sauce and vegetarian Worcestershire sauce (which normally contains anchovies). Add 2 tablespoons of oil to the wok, along with the shiitake mushrooms. Stir-fry for 2 minutes and then add the onions, carrots, cabbage, and bell pepper. Stir-fry for another 2 minutes. Add the noodles, and pour the sauce mixture over them. The liquid will help break them up. Continue to stir-fry the mixture for another 2-3 minutes until the noodles are heated through. Add the scallions and stir-fry for 1 more minute. And that’s it! So easy, right? Maybe garnish the dish with some toasted sesame seeds, and dig in! This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Mizkan™ Rice Vinegars and Sauces, available nationwide at Walmart and select retailers. Follow Mizkan on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest.
