Creamy Miso Udon with Mushrooms

This Creamy Miso Udon with Mushrooms is savory, rich & unique. Chewy udon noodles coated in a creamy sauce and tossed with umami mushrooms. If you want to change up your dinner rotation, this will be the one for you!

Miso and cream sauce seems to be a weird combination. A few years ago, when we went to Kyoto. We stopped by a restaurant that is specialized in omurice. Omurice is a rice dish covered with a perfectly cooked omelette. The rice is usually cooked with vegetables or meat. I ordered an omurice with miso sauce, which is pretty unique. Most omurice serve with ketchup sauce or demi-glace. The rice was cooked with mushrooms, then top with a soft omelette and a creamy miso sauce. It was perfect! I dreamt about that omurice all the time and still do to this day.

That was the first time I had a cream sauce that is made with miso. Creamy, savory with a bit of earthiness and sweetness. I really wanted to recreate that. That is how this dish comes to life.

Instead of doing a rice dish, I want to use noodles. Instead of pasta, I chose udon. Udon is my favorite noodles. It doesn’t really have much flavors, but the texture is what I like about them, chewy and bouncy. Although udon is mostly used in soup noodles. They definitely would pair well with a thick creamy sauce.

Mushrooms are also important in this dish. They add lots of umami and earthy flavors. I used 3 types of Asian mushrooms, shiitake, brown beech and enoki. There are many kind of mushrooms out there, go for the Asian ones, instead of white button or cremini. And try to pick at least 2 kinds which will bring a mixed of flavors. I cooked the mushroom in 2 batches, so they get a much better browning.

For the sauce, it’s mostly a cream sauce, but with miso in it. The trick of adding miso is not to add them directly into the sauce. It doesn’t dissolve well and you may end up having bits of miso paste in your sauce. Instead, add the miso paste in a heatproof bowl, and then pour in some hot liquid. I used the water from boiling udon. Whisk the miso and water until smooth. Now, you can add this miso liquid into the sauce. That way your sauce will remain smooth and creamy.

Last, add the cooked udon into the sauce and give it a good toss. The sauce should be thick enough to coat the udon nicely. Top with green onion for freshness and nori seafood for extra umami flavors. Rich, creamy and savory! I love this dish and I will be adding this to our weeknight dinner rotation. Enjoy!

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Creamy Miso Udon with Mushrooms

Course Main Course

Cuisine Japanese

Keyword creamy miso udon, creamy udon, japanese noodles, japanese recipe, miso cream sauce, mushroom with noodles, yoshoku

Servings 2 people

Author Lokness

Ingredients

• 8 ounces assorted mushrooms (like shiitake, oyster, white beech, brown beech, makitake & enoki)
• 2 udon packages (best to use Sanuki udon)
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1¼ tablespoon miso
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 5 garlic cloves (minced)
• 3 tablespoons heavy cream
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• Pinch of black pepper
• 1 green onion (thinly sliced)
• Nori seaweed

Instructions

• For all the mushroom, rinse and pat dry with paper towels. For the shiitake, cut off the stems and cut into stripes. For the oyster, remove stem and cut into 1-inch long stripes. For the white beech, brown beech, and makitake, trim the base of the cluster. Pull the mushrooms apart. For enoki, trim the base of the cluster and pull the mushrooms apart into small bunches.
• Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Follow the udon package direction to cook the udon. Save 1 cup of udon water. Drain and rinse under cold water. Set aside.
• In a large skillet over medium high heat, warm 1 tablespoon vegetable oil. Add half of the mushrooms and cook until nicely browned, about 4 – 5 minutes. Transfer to a medium bowl. In the same skillet, add another tablespoon oil. Cook the rest of the mushrooms until nicely browned. Transfer to the bowl with the other mushrooms.
• In a small bowl, whisk together miso and 1/3 cup udon water until smooth.
• In the same skillet over medium heat, melt the butter. Add garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add mushrooms, miso water, heavy cream, soy sauce and black pepper. Mix well. Add the udon and coat with the sauce. Cook for 2 more minutes. Taste and adjust the seasoning. Add more miso and soy sauce if needed. If the sauce is too thick, add a bit more udon water. Transfer to serving plates. Top with green onion and nori.

Notes

1. You can find all these mushrooms in most Asian supermarkets. Whole Foods carry some of them too.
2. The only udon I buy is frozen Sanuki udon. They’re chewy and easy to use. No defrost is needed. Throw them in boiling water and ready in minutes. You can get them from most Asian supermarkets.
3. Cooking the mushrooms in 2 batches help to not to overcrowd the pan and allow them to brown nicely.
4. There’re many varieties of miso out there. White miso is sweeter and less strong. Red miso is more robust. For this dish, I would say either use red or a combination of both. It’s up to you.
5. When you’re adding miso to the dish, always whisk with a bit of hot udon water first. That will dissolve the miso and make a smooth sauce.
6. The nori I used is for making sushi rolls. I cut them thinly with a pair of scissors. They added a good amount of flavors to the dish. Don’t skip them.

(Adapted from Food52)