Vegan Toshikoshi Soba
Happy New Year with soba noodles! While we are deciding between fondue and raclette grill in Germany, there is a special New-Year-soup in Japan called Toshikoshi Soba. This dish has several traditional sources, e.g. that it’s said that long noodles equal a long life. You don’t need many ingredients but what’s necessary is a proper vegetarian Kombu Dashi. This is a vegan broth where we use kombu alga and mushrooms and leave out fish flakes. You should prepare the broth a day before in order to develop enough flavour. We got all ingredients easily in our Asia market.
Vegan Toshikoshi Soba
2 servings
30 minutes (+ preparation time)
Ingredients
- 150 g (5.5 oz) soba noodles
- 3-4 green onions, finely cut in rings
- 80 ml (0.3 cup) soy sauce
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 50 ml (0.25 cup) mirin rice wine
For the broth
- 3-4 large dried shiitake mushrooms
- 1 large sheet of kombu
- 500 ml (2 cups) water
Instructions
- Start with preparations a day before eating. Take out a large pan, place dried mushrooms and a sheet of dashi kombu in there and fill up with water, let it soak overnight. Make sure to follow instructions for dashi kombu which is: Gently „clean“ the kombu with a damp cloth but do not wash it. There are white substances on the dashi kombu and they are important, so don’t rub them away. Afterwards make a couple of slits in your sheet of kombu. Let this all soak overnight.
- On the next day, take out mushromos and kombu and fill the broth into a small pot and heat it up. It’s important that your broth will never really cook, just keep it simmering at at about 60°C/130°F.
- Add mirin, sugar and soy sauce and keep simmering for 10 minutes. Then pour the broth through a sieve so that the mushrooms and kombu leaf remain suspended in it.
- In the meantime, you can prepare soba noodles according to package instructions, they will cook in hot water about 5 minutes. Soba noodles need to be rinsed under cold water afterwards!
- Take out a large soup bowl, add soba noddles and fill in broth.
- Finely cut green onions in rings and top your broth with it.
