Mentsuyu Recipe (Cold Soba Noodle Dipping Sauce)

This Mentsuyu Recipe (Cold Soba Noodle Dipping Sauce) is ready in minutes! Made from soy sauce, mirin, sake and dashi powder, it’s a super refreshing dipping sauce for a hot summer’s day.

Why We Love This

We love having a batch of mentsuyu sauce in the fridge so it’s always on standby whenever we get hungry! It’s so refreshing to dip cold soba noodles in the chilled mentsuyu sauce, especially in summer. But you can also enjoy it warm, poured straight over a batch of freshly cooked noodles. 

Traditional mentsuyu recipes call for real dashi stock made from a base of kombu (seaweed) and dried bonito flakes. We prefer to use dashi powder for a quick and easy alternative to making real dashi.

What is Mentsuyu? 

Mentsuyu (sometimes called tsuyu) is a popular dipping sauce / soup base used in Japanese cuisine. It’s a refreshing and tasty way to enjoy noodles any time, because it’s so quick to prepare! There are two main ways to enjoy it:

• Cold – Tsuketsuyu – dip cold soba noodles into chilled mentsuyu sauce. This is how we’ve prepared today’s recipe.
• Warm – Kaketsuyu – just pour mentsuyu straight over boiling noodles. The mentsuyu will mix with leftover cooking water on the noodles to make a delicious and healthy broth. 

You can even use mentsuyu as a less intense version of a gyoza dipping sauce.

What You’ll Need

Four simple little ingredients are all you need to make your own batch of mentsuyu dipping sauce at home using this simplified recipe:

• Soy sauce – You can use any kind of regular or light soy sauce for this recipe. For the best flavour and quality, use a Japanese soy sauce.
• Mirin – This is a sweet rice wine for cooking, if you can’t find it at your supermarket, you can omit or add in a 1/2 tsp of sugar instead. You can sometimes find this in regular supermarkets, otherwise head to your nearest Asian grocer or online.
• Cooking sake – This is a type of rice wine made for cooking. It’s lighter and more delicate in flavour than Chinese cooking wine, but you can use either in this recipe. Look for it at Asian grocers or online.
• Dashi powder – This is our favourite shortcut to save time on making dashi stock from scratch. You can find it in two different styles – kombu dashi (vegan) or hondashi (made with smoked dried bonito). If you feel like taking things further you can always make your own dashi stock from scratch with fresh kombu and katsuobushi (bonito flakes) and use it in other Japanese recipes such as Udon Noodle Soup, Takoyaki or Shabu Shabu.

How to make:

1. Stir together your soy, mirin, sake or rice wine and dashi powder in a saucepan and gently bring to the boil, stirring occasionally.
2. Take it off the heat and set aside, allowing it to cool completely before use.
3. (Optional) Garnish with a sprinkling of aonori powder or thinly sliced nori for extra flavour.

How to prepare cold soba noodles:

4. If you’re ready to eat, go ahead and bring a medium pot of water to the boil, then add in your soba noodles. Cook according to packet directions (usually around 3 mins or so), then drain and remove from the heat.
5. Allow noodles to cool completely before serving beside your cooled mentsuyu sauce.
6. Dip your noodles in the sauce and enjoy!

Wandercook’s Tips

• To stop your noodles from drying out (and add in a little extra deliciousness), stir a tsp of sesame oil through your noodles they start to cool down.
• For the most refreshing experience, allow your noodles to cool completely before serving. You might like to run them under cold water to speed this up, or pop them in the fridge for 10 mins or so before serving so they cool down more quickly.

FAQs

Variations & Substitutes

• Mirin – For every 1tbsp of mirin, you can substitute with 1tbsp water + 1 tsp sugar.
• Dashi Stock Powder – The best substitutes for this are either chicken or vegetable stock. The flavour won’t be the same, but they will still add an extra depth that you wouldn’t get if you omit the stock powder all together.
• Flavour Intensity – Mentsuyu sauce can be quite strong, so you might like to add extra water to dilute the flavour and make it more like a soup if you prefer.
• Optional Garnishes – We love sprinkling aonori (seaweed powder) and shichimi togarashi (Japanese seven spice chilli powder) as a garnish over our sauce. They add an extra depth of flavour and colour to your bowl, but it’s not essential.
• Homemade Noodles – If you’re feeling really inspired, you could also make your own noodles too!

Here’s our other most popular Japanese sauces on the blog:

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Quick Mentsuyu Recipe (Cold Soba Noodle Sauce)

This Mentsuyu Recipe (Cold Soba Noodle Sauce) is ready in minutes! Made from soy sauce, mirin, sake and dashi powder, it’s a super refreshing dipping sauce for a hot summer’s day.

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Prep Time: 5 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 5 minutes minutes

Total Time: 10 minutes minutes

Course: Condiment, Lunch

Cuisine: Japanese

Servings: 2 people

Calories: 833kcal

Author: Wandercooks

Cost: $10

Equipment

• ▢
  Small saucepan
• ▢
  Large Saucepan
• ▢
  Small Dipping Sauce Bowls

Ingredients

• ▢ 3 tbsp soy sauce
• ▢ 3 tbsp mirin
• ▢ 2 tbsp cooking sake rice wine
• ▢ 1 tsp dashi powder
• ▢ 200 g soba noodles or 100g per person

Optional garnish:

• ▢ 1-2 tsp seaweed flakes / aonori or thinly sliced nori

Metric – US Customary

Instructions

For the sauce:

• Stir together your soy sauce, mirin, sake or rice wine and dashi powder in a saucepan and gently bring to the boil, stirring occasionally.
  3 tbsp soy sauce, 3 tbsp mirin, 2 tbsp cooking sake, 1 tsp dashi powder
• Take it off the heat and set aside to cool completely before use.
• Optional: Garnish with a sprinkling of aonori powder or thinly sliced nori for extra flavour.
  1-2 tsp seaweed flakes / aonori

For the noodles:

• If you’re ready to eat, go ahead and bring a medium pot of water to the boil, then add in your soba noodles. Cook according to packet directions (usually around 3 mins or so), then drain and remove from the heat.
  200 g soba noodles
• For the most refreshing experience, allow your noodles to cool completely before serving. You might like to run them under cold water to speed this up, or pop them in the fridge for 10 mins or so before serving so they cool down more quickly.

Video

Recipe Notes

• Mirin – For every 1tbsp of mirin, you can substitute with 1tbsp water + 1 tsp sugar.
• Dashi Stock Powder – The best substitutes for this are either chicken or vegetable stock. The flavour won’t be the same, but they will still add an extra depth that you wouldn’t get if you omit the stock powder all together.
• Flavour Intensity – Mentsuyu sauce can be quite strong, so you might like to add extra water to dilute the flavour and make it more like a soup if you prefer.
• Optional Garnishes – We love sprinkling aonori (seaweed powder) and shichimi togarashi (Japanese seven spice chilli powder) as a garnish over our sauce. They add an extra depth of flavour and colour to your bowl, but it’s not essential.
• Noodles – To stop your noodles from drying out (and add in a little extra deliciousness), stir a tsp of sesame oil through your noodles they start to cool down

Nutrition

Nutrition Facts

Quick Mentsuyu Recipe (Cold Soba Noodle Sauce)

Amount per Serving

Calories

833

% Daily Value*

Fat

 

2

g

3

%

Saturated Fat

 

1

g

6

%

Sodium

 

4996

mg

217

%

Potassium

 

681

mg

19

%

Carbohydrates

 

178

g

59

%

Fiber

 

3

g

13

%

Sugar

 

13

g

14

%

Protein

 

35

g

70

%

Vitamin A

 

84

IU

2

%

Calcium

 

160

mg

16

%

Iron

 

9

mg

50

%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

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