bonito flake

In the United States, especially in Japanese American restaurants, the standard version of miso soup usually involves little more than soft tofu, seaweed and a lily-pad suspension of scallions. Think of this recipe as your blank canvas: You could add thinly sliced shiitake mushrooms at the end, or replace the katsuobushi entirely with dried shiitakes for a vegan version. Fried tofu, clams and even chicken are all fair game when cooking miso soup at home. The chef Seiji Ando, of Benkay restaurant in Portland, Maine, adds sake and mirin for balance, and says even a tiny bit of butter can be delicious.

Miso Soup

(5-inch) square kombu (dried kelp)

sake

mirin

wakame (dried seaweed), crushed (1/4 cup)

(14-ounce) package silken tofu, drained

miso (white

scallion,

Make dashi, the soup base, by soaking kombu in 4 cups of cold water for 15 minutes in a medium pot. Add the sake and mirin and bring to a simmer over high heat. As soon as the water starts to boil, take the pot off the heat, cover and let the kombu steep until the liquid smells like the sea, about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a small bowl, soak the wakame in about 3 inches of cold water until soft, about 15 minutes as well. Drain and set aside.

When ready to serve, remove the kombu from the pot (see Tip). Stir the katsuobushi into the kombu broth, cover and let steep for 1 minute. Strain into a medium bowl, pressing down on the katsuobushi to extract all of the liquid; discard the spent flakes. This is your dashi.

Return the dashi to the pot and add the drained wakame. Scoop the tofu into the pot using a spoon or your hand, leaving it in large chunks. Bring the soup to a boil, then remove from the heat.

Add the miso to a small bowl, then ladle over some of the broth and stir to dissolve. Add the dissolved miso to the pot and gently stir until incorporated. Add the scallion, taste for seasoning (adding more miso if you’d like) and serve immediately.

Whether served on top of a bowl of rice or with chewy udon noodles, thinly shaved beef cooked with onions in a sweet-savory dashi broth is classic, warming Japanese comfort food that can be made in minutes once your pantry is stocked with a few simple Japanese staples.

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2022/10/19/dining/19kenjirex-udon1/19kenjirex-udon1-videoSixteenByNineJumbo1600-v3.jpg

Lennart Weibull for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Victoria Granof.

Niku Udon (Japanese Beef Noodle Soup)

grams/about 2 (4-inch) squares kombu

beef

yellow onion, thinly sliced

sugar

soy sauce

soy sauce, plus more as needed

udon noodles

togarashi,

NYT Cooking

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2022/10/19/dining/19kenjirex-udon1/19kenjirex-udon1-googleFourByThree-v3.jpg

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2022/10/19/dining/19kenjirex-udon1/19kenjirex-udon1-mediumSquareAt3X-v3.jpg

Make the dashi: Combine 2 quarts cold water and the kombu in a medium saucepan, and place over medium heat. As soon as the water boils, remove from heat and add the katsuobushi, pushing it gently into the water to submerge (don’t stir vigorously). Steep for 5 to 10 minutes. Strain and discard the kombu and katsuobushi (or reserve to make another batch of weaker dashi) and return the dashi to the saucepan. Keep warm, but don’t let it boil.

Cook the beef: Combine the shaved beef, onion, scallion whites, sugar, sake, soy sauce, mirin and 1 cup of the finished dashi in a large skillet or sauté pan. Bring to a simmer over high heat, stirring. Continue cooking over high heat, stirring frequently, until the beef and onions are tender and the mixture is still moist but not soupy, 10 to 15 minutes.

As beef cooks, bring a pot of unsalted water to a boil — udon noodles are typically made with plenty of salt in the dough — and cook the udon noodles according to package directions.

To serve, add the soy sauce and mirin to the reserved dashi and stir. Taste and adjust seasoning to taste with more soy sauce or mirin. (The broth should have a balanced savory-sweet flavor.)

Divide the cooked noodles across 4 large serving bowls. Ladle the broth on top of the noodles. Divide the beef and onion mixture evenly across the noodles, including any liquid in the pan. Top each bowl with sliced scallion greens. (You may have extra.) Serve immediately with shichimi togarashi to taste.

This is the first time I have used kombu in any recipe. The first time I made this dish I didn't know what to do with at after soaking as instructed. Turns out I don't have to waste it. Second time around I saved it and made tsukudani. It's absolutely delicious and makes for a great snack and side dish.

has anyone made batches of homemade dashi and frozen it? how are the reheated results?

This was delicious. We ate double the amount of udon noodles -- half a pound (one pack) per person. Time-saving tip: the directions on the package of frozen udon noodles says you can microwave them in the plastic wrap -- no need to boil a pot of water!

would use the same quantities of bonito and kombu called for two servings. Maybe even put in a seafood stock pellet. Also, skip the sugar completely. It was much too sweet.

Really cook. Togarashi was really helpful to bring out the flavors. QQ could you cook the noodles in prepared Dashi?

I needed to add salt because it lacked taste once all was said and done. It was pretty great then, but I feel the meat needs some additional umami, and the dashi felt too similar to miso soup.

I tossed pre-cooked udon noodles in the Dashi to skip a step and save a pot! This dish was great, I would add some greens and mushrooms to round it out a bit. It’s going in the rotation.

followed recipe, wasnt delighted. quite bland.

Made this recipe as written with quality ingredients from a Japanese Grocer including fresh udon. Amazing. Simple, well written recipe and as good an Udon as any I have enjoyed at nice Japanese restaurants.

So, why can’t you go to the meat or deli counter in the grocery store and ask them to shave a steak (across grain)?

Added ginger to onion/beef mix. Added bok choy to lightly cook at very end

made this, followed recipe mostly exactly. found it boring, bland. Not a keeper for us.

I chopped up a head of broccoli and threw it in while the water was boiling for the udon. Yummy!

Several suggestions:
1) If you have time, leave the kombu in room temperature water for 30 minutes or so beforehand. If you find yourself in a hurry often, get dashi teabags: they’re designed to steep more quickly.
2) The onion takes much longer to cook than beef, so start simmering the onion and add the meat later.
3) Shaved lean pork works just as well, arguably better as it keeps flavor more readily when simmered. Most udon restaurants in Japan use beef, but home chefs often use pork.

Very good! Even my picky Chinese husband enjoyed it. I followed directions to a T, but did use HonDashi as a shortcut and threw some baby bok choi in the broth for some veggies. Per my husband’s suggestion, next time I’ll marinate the meat in some soy sauce and mirin before cooking it!

Namiko Chen's "Just One Cookbook" (which I access online) has several similar recipes, one of which I make frequently, "Simmered Beef with Ginger". She includes a YouTube tutorial for how to slice meat thin. Put a nicely marbled rib eye or chuck in the freezer for approximately 90 minutes to 2 hours. Remove and slice across the grain as thin as you want. It's that easy and makes these simmered meat dishes much more accessible.

WOW! Made this tonight pretty much to a T and it was wonderful. I only use low-sodium soy sauce so it could have benefited from a bit of extra salt, but that’s an easy adjustment for next time. For those near a Wegmans, they have very nice thin sliced shabu shabu style ribeye - it’s pricey (!) but worked beautifully in this. Used packages of Fortune pre-cooked udon noodles from the regular grocery store shelf (discarded the accompanying flavor packets).

Why would you replace the kombu for a vegetarian dashi? Kombu is kelp and is a sea vegetable. 

I use dried shiitake steeped in water to make a strong broth concentrate and combine with the kombu. After adding the mirin and soy sauce in the recipe I don't think there will be a big flavor difference between it and awase dashi (I also use a little sake). My vegetarian friends in Japan make vegetarian dashi this way a lot!

Shichimi and nanami togarashi are two versions of, basically, the same thing. They are formulated slightly differently because a few ingredients like hemp seeds Were prohibited in some jurisdictions.
Rather than buying the small bottles I buy the large bags of S&B brand from AMAZON which is much cheaper per ounce.  If one is to only use it infrequently the small bottles are ok and like any spice may be fresher when used.

Fresh udon are scarce here, but fresh Italian pasta is not - subbed in bucatini and used what my butcher calls "Philly meat".  Delicious and simple.  Thank you, Kenji.

I made this for dinner tonight. It's absolutely easy and super delicious. This is going in our regular rotation. 

I used some leftover tri-tip (nice and fatty) that I sliced super thin on my meat slicer (thanks, wedding gift that seemed a little silly at the time!) Next time we'll use another piece of it that we have in the freezer. 

I feel like you could also thinly slice up some bok choy or something like that and put it in right at the end if you want a hit of vegetables other than onions.

I read this recipe yesterday and started craving it immediately. Luckily we live near an H Mart, so I was able to get all the ingredients and make it tonight. I made it per the recipe and it came out great. My whole family (including 2 teenage sons) loved it.

I was worried about simmering the meat for so long, but it turned out tender and delicious. 
I served with fresh, grated ginger and a little Boon sauce (chili oil).  Thank you Kenji, this was awesome!

Twice. Once to the meat and onions and again to the dashi / broth

It's part of the liquid you boil the beef & onions in. See step 2.

Easy and very tasty. I used dashi packets I got on Amazon - 4 packets in 2 quarts water. Costco has thinly sliced rib eye for just this purpose. I'd up the noodle quotient. Our Walmart (of all places) has packages of udon in their small but interesting Asian section. Where I live there aren't many grocery options but Walmart; they don't have that wide of variety but there's buried treasure sometimes (for some reason they carry frozen NYC bagels which are better than anything I can find here).

So, so delicious. Used ginger as others had suggested, but other than that, exactly as the recipe said. The first time this year my husband is taking leftovers to the office for lunch… that says it all.

I have made this 3 times, trying to get it "right". Done trying.
1: Takes 3 pots to make & results in no leftovers.
2: If using fresh udon, knock off the extra flour and use A LOT of water or the cooking water turns into a starchy mess. It does not reheat well; don't cook more udon than will be eaten at that meal. Frozen was more forgiving. 
3: Ribeye varies. Be careful to select beef with little connective tissue or the meat will be stringy and inedible, no matter how thin. 
YMMV.

Simply delicious!  Had to add more soy sauce and mirin to the dashi. And I tossed some baby bok choy in with the beef for crunch.  Will definitely make this again!

Tried this recipe tonight. It was really good. Next time I would cut the Bonito Flakes a bit to tamper the fish flavor. But that’s a personal taste (my wife disagrees). I would also add the sliced beef to the pan at the last minute to keep it tender. Will definitely add this to our regular list. Drink the rest of the Sake with the meal. Great pairing.

https://vp.nyt.com/video/2025/02/14/134226_1_KLA-niku-udon-CV_wg_480p.mp4

The New York Times

“It comes together in about 15 minutes. It’s really, really simple, one-pot thing. Did I say one pot? No, two-pot thing. [CHUCKLES]: Or if you’re making your own dashi, three-pot thing. Sorry. [CHUCKLING]: All right.” [MUSIC PLAYING] “Hey, everyone, I’m Kenji López-Alt. I’m a cookbook author and nytcooking.com contributor. And we are going to be making niku udon. It is a classic Japanese home cooking dish, so made with thinly shaved beef, simmered with onions. Really, really simple. This dish is one of my family’s favorites. My daughter actually is now a vegetarian, so we don’t do it as much anymore. But before my daughter became vegetarian, this was one of her favorite dishes to make at home because it’s just a few simple ingredients. It comes together real quick. We’re going to be making our own dashi, our own stock here. You can use powdered dashi, though, and if you do that, it comes together in about 15 minutes. All right. So the first step is to make the dashi. Dashi is a really basic Japanese stock. It’s made with two ingredients, if you don’t include the water. And then this is kombu, so sea kelp. We’re going to throw that in there. The water is cold, and we’re going to bring it up to a simmer. Some people will take the kombu and let it steep cold in the water for even up to a day, you could do that, and then slowly bring it up to a boil. You’ll extract a little bit more flavor that way. Generally, I don’t bother. I just bring it up to a boil in cold water. And then once that water reaches a boil, we’re going to be adding this, which is katsuobushi. Katsuobushi is skipjack tuna that has been salted, fermented, smoked, dried, until it has the texture of like plywood, almost, of balsa wood. And then you shave it, just the same way that you would shave a piece of balsa wood. So it comes out looking like sawdust, but it doesn’t taste like sawdust. [CHUCKLES]: It tastes really smoky and umami. So it has a lot of that really concentrated glutamic acid and inosinic acid that you find in seafood. That, combined with the sea kelp, is what gives dashi, Japanese flavors, that really deep umami flavor. Our kombu is almost at a boil. What you don’t want to do is let this come to a rolling boil and just sit there. What happens is that will overextract from the kombu. In the same way that if you overbrew your tea, it becomes bitter, the same thing is going to happen here. You’re going to pull out these flavors that you don’t necessarily want. The bonito flakes, you definitely do not want to boil those. It will turn your dashi cloudy and really bitter-tasting. So really, we’re just going to try and brew this, almost like making a tea. I also got a pot of water going on the side, because we’re going to be cooking our udon noodles in there. One pot for the dashi to make, we have a pan to cook our beef, and then we have a pot for the noodles in there. So this is a three-pot dish, a real simple one. But it is a three-pot dish, if you’re going to be making your own dashi from scratch. All right, our dashi is coming to a boil here, so we’re just going to shut it off completely.” [MUSIC PLAYING] “And then I’m going to add my katsuobushi. What I’m going to do is make sure it’s submerged. And then I’m going to let this sit aside and steep, just like tea, for about 5 or 10 minutes. And in the meantime, I’m going to start getting my other ingredients together -- scallions, scallion whites, sugar. This is Japanese soy sauce, shoyu. Mirin, which is a sweet Japanese wine. Some sake. And then we’re going to add beef. So this is really thinly shaved ribeye. You can use any kind of thinly shaved beef. What I would recommend is you go to the Asian market. Look in the shabu shabu section. You’re usually going to find thinly shaved beef like this. If you can’t, you can also check out a Western market and look for meat that’s intended for Philly cheesesteaks. It’s essentially the same thing. There’s two ways that you can slice an onion when you’re cutting it. You could slice it, what I would call, parallel to the equator of the onion, so into the way you would, say, cut onion rings. You know, that way? When you slice it that way, you end up with a texture that I find doesn’t actually break down very well as it simmers. So the onion pieces actually stay a little bit too intact, and they get these little crunchy bits. I much prefer slicing my onion for dishes like this the other way, so from pole to pole. And you end up with --” [CHOPPING] “-- an onion texture that --” [CHOPPING] “-- the onion kind of melts into it a little bit more easily. So that’s why I like to do it that way. It also changes the flavor of the onion just a little bit. It results in onion flavor that’s a little bit milder. So instead of getting that really super pungent onion flavor, you get some of the sweeter flavors and some of the more aromatic flavors that way. That’s going to go right in as well. It’s going to steep for another couple of minutes. But just to get this going, I’m going to pop my strainer in here. Dip in there with a ladle. And we’re going to grab about a cup of that dashi and put it in here. Now all we do is simmer this. Sometimes, this beef comes rolled or clumped up. I’m just going to poke it apart with my chopsticks. Now, you can use a fork, of course. With a dish like this, also, your goal is not to try and keep the beef in intact pieces. It all kinds of ends up shredding and falling apart. And that’s all fine. It should all have this kind of rustic texture to it, homecooked quality. Our dashi has been steeping for about 5 to 10 minutes now. So all I’m going to do is strain it out. Yeah, it’s got a really nice, smoky, savory quality to it. Just give a little gentle push to get all the excess out. What you can do now is you can add more water to it and make what’s called a second dashi, a dashi that would be used more for cooking, as opposed to a soup like this. You can make a second dashi, of course, or you can just discard it if you don’t want to bother making a second dashi. This is going to go right back in the pot. All right, our beef and onions are close to done. These are fresh Japanese udon noodles. So Japanese udon are thick wheat noodles. You can buy them fresh or frozen. You can also get them dried. But I prefer getting the fresh stuff for this style of noodle. So this is water that is at a boil. Unlike Italian pasta, Japanese udon, the dough is usually pretty heavily salted, so you don’t really need to salt your water separately. You can add a little bit of salt if you really feel like it. This is actually completely unsalted water right now. Season our broth. So this is just the dashi. All we’re going to do is season it with some soy sauce and some more mirin. As with a lot of Japanese homecooked meals, this is going to have a really balanced, slightly sweet, and very savory flavor profile. Check for seasoning. Sometimes you want a little more soy sauce. Sometimes you want a little more meat. That tastes pretty good to me. All right, I’m also going to taste the beef for seasoning. Mm, yep. Real good. So you’re looking at this, and you might think, like, oh, my god, you’re just boiling your beef. In Western cooking, we rely a lot on browning to give you those deep umami flavors. With a lot of Japanese cooking, you don’t get those flavors from browning the meat. You get those deep umami flavors from long-fermented sauces. So things like soy sauce, that’s what’s going to give you, really, that rich umami flavor that you would typically get in Western cooking from browning your beef. So you’ll find a lot of dishes that are just simmered, that really focus on this kind of tender texture. All the flavor gets built in through sauces and fermented things like that. Let’s check our noodles. Those are done. All right. So I’m going to construct a bowl here.” [MUSIC PLAYING] “Finally, this is shichimi togarashi. So togarashi is Japanese chili flakes. Shichimi togarashi is Japanese chili flakes that have seven flavors. Shichi means seven. So it’s basically seasoned chili flakes. It’s got things like -- oh, what does it have? Black sesame seeds, cardamom, usually orange peel, maybe some seaweed in there. I don’t remember all the things, honestly. [LAUGHS]: But you can buy it as is. All right. Are we ready to give this a taste?” [MUSIC PLAYING] “Tastes like classic comfort food for me. These are the flavors I grew up eating. And by the way, if you don’t want udon, this topping is really great over a bowl of rice. You just get a rice bowl, plop this on top, you get this kind of wet, seasoned rice that’s really comforting. And the beef mixes in there. So a really nice balance, very umami, a little bit sweet, savory, a little bit salty. All those flavors are really nicely balanced. And a lot of Japanese food is these sort of subtle mixes of flavors that I find very, very comforting. [CHUCKLES]: If you want this recipe, any of my recipes, or a bunch of other great recipes -- nytcooking.com.” [MUSIC PLAYING]

Top 2 bonito flake recipes from across the web

The most viewed bonito flake recipes by Recipe Cart users, saved from over 20,000 sites. Or, go to our Recipe Search Engine

Top Tags

Miso Soup

Niku Udon (Japanese Beef Noodle Sou...

Top 2 bonito flake recipes from across the web

The most viewed bonito flake recipes by Recipe Cart users, saved from over 20,000 sites. Or, go to our Recipe Search Engineic_arrow_forward_48px

Top Tags

Miso Soup

Niku Udon (Japanese Beef Noodle Sou...

The most viewed bonito flake recipes by Recipe Cart users, saved from over 20,000 sites. Or, go to our Recipe Search Engine