How to Make Udon Noodle from Scratch

Thursday, November 3, 2022

How to Make Udon Noodle from Scratch

When I was a child, I made udon noodles from scratch at home once, and I remembered that it was really fun to make and it turned out to be the best udon noodles I've ever had. In Japan, udon noodles are very affordable. If you go to supermarkets in Japan, you might find raw udon noodles for around $0.13 (20 yen) per serving. Considering that it's very cheap price, making udon noodles from scratch won't save your money and time at all. However, these years flour price has hiked significantly in the U.S., and udon noodle price has also hiked. I used to purchase frozen udon noodles for $1.99 for 5 servings on sale at Asian grocery stores in the U.S., but now it's $4.99 on sale or $7.99 at regular price. That's why I thought that it's good time to make udon noodles from scratch. I was really excited to make it because I always wanted to make it for so many years! Last month, my husband and I finally decided to make udon noodles.

The noodles we made were not perfect shape, but it tasted very good. We made a large amount of noodles, so we kept many of them in freezer to enjoy them later. For our first udon noodles, we enjoyed tsukimi udon (月見うどん). You can check out my previous entry, How To Cook Tsukimi Wakame Udon.

Before making udon noodles from scratch, I watched this video. You will see that noodles is made of simple ingredients.

Today, I'm going to share how we made udon noodles from scratch. 😉

How to Make Udon Noodles from Scratch

Ingredients (8 to 16 Servings)

2 Tablespoons of Salt

400ml of Water

800g of All-Purpose Flour

1. Mix salt and water. Stir until salt is completely dissolved in water. (I use pink salt, Himalayan salt, but you can also use sea salt. )

2. Put flour in a large bowl and add 300ml of salted water. Then stir it with a spoon or your hand.

Add 100ml of salted water little by little. Stir thoroughly until the flour is evenly hydrated.

3. Knead the dough together into a ball.

4. Put the dough into a large Ziploc bag.

5. Knead the dough with your hands for 20 minutes or with your feet for 5 to 10 minutes.

It's easier to knead the dough with your feet than your hands. Step on the dough until it's flat. Then, fold the edges toward the middle. Then step on it to flatten it again. Repeat it for 5 to 10 minutes.

6. Let the dough rest at room temperature for one to two hours. (1 hour in summer / 2 hours in winter)

7. Dust the work surface with all-purpose flour. Put the dough and sprinkle flour over the dough as well.

8. Roll out the dough with using a large rolling pin.

The dough is about 3mm, 1/8 of an inch, thick.

9. Dust the dough with flour and fold it a few times.

10. Dust the cutting board with flour, and transfer the dough to it. Then, slice the folded dough into 5mm thickness.

Dust the noodles with flour to prevent them from sticking to each other.

Divide the noodles into 8 to 16 servings. One serving is about 80g to 150g.

If You Want to Enjoy Them Later, Store Them in A Freezer.

Because I made a large amount of noodles, I stored many of them in the freezer. Just put each serving of noodles into a plastic sandwich bag, and put them in the freezer.

Cook the Noodles

1. Fill the large pot with plenty of water and bring it to a boil. Then, cook the noodles in a boiling water for 10 to 15 minutes.

2. Drain and rinse thoroughly under cold running water. Now, noodles are ready.

3. For 2 servings of udon noodles, put 400ml of water, 120ml of mentsuyu into a pot, and bring it to a boil. Add cooked noodles and cook it for 30 seconds.