Homemade Udon Noodles from a Japanese Udon Master

Get ready to make these super simple homemade udon noodles from scratch… with your feet! Only 4 ingredients stand between you and these fresh Japanese noodles, just waiting to be added to a big bowl of udon noodle soup or curry udon.

Why We Love This

To this day, this is one of our favourite travel memories in the mountains of Shikoku, Japan, where we learnt the fine art of making Japanese udon noodles with our feet. Yep. You read that right.

This is the easiest method for making homemade noodles from scratch. We love being able to make a batch at any time and either eat them fresh, or pop them straight in the freezer for future deliciousness.

Related: Yaki Udon (Stir Fried Udon Noodles) / Nikomi Udon Soup with Miso

What are udon noodles? 

These delectable chewy noodles are very popular in Japanese cuisine. They’re usually served in a simple broth, a light soy based sauce or with Japanese curry roux as curry udon. It’s the perfect light meal to fill you up.

Where we learnt to cook udon:

Our first attempt at making udon noodles from scratch was in Miyoshi, Shikoku Island, Japan with the village’s very own udon master.

Stepping inside the cosy udon cooking shed, the master launched straight into his lesson with a quick introduction to the recipe – both of which were completely in Japanese. We quickly realised that he didn’t speak English and we would have to rely on our conversational Japanese (and a few useful hand gestures) to turn the simple ingredients of flour, water and salt into noodle-y goodness.

Quickly donning aprons and super stylish bandanas, we followed along doing our best to copy the master’s technique.

When he told us to pop our dough between sheets of thick plastic, the master motioned to us to jump up and knead the balls with our feet!

We looked at each other, quickly confirming we’d both understood the instruction correctly, then jumped up and got stomping. We couldn’t argue though – this unusual and completely unexpected technique was super effective.  Squishing the dough under our feet helped it become smooth and perfectly kneaded.

After that, it wasn’t just the dough balls that needed a little rest. While the dough took a break in a warm place for 30 minutes (the most convenient warm place being under a Japanese kotatsu table), we chatted with the master and his wife (as best as we could) over a cup of  hot Japanese matcha green tea.

One at a time our sheets of dough were carefully laid out onto a long chopping board before being chopped into thin strips using a handy spring-loaded cleaver. At home, the easiest way to achieve this would be with a pasta machine.

Afterwards we gathered the noodles into our hands and gently pulled them apart to help separate them properly, then dropped them straight into steaming hot water to cook.

Before long the noodles were ready to be eaten, ladled out into huge bowls along with a raw egg each, followed by a ladle full of dashi, a splash of udon shoyu (soy sauce), sliced spring onion, a sprinkle of ground sesame seeds. Yum!

What You’ll Need

This recipe can’t get much simpler! You need flour, water and salt – that’s IT! The cornstarch (or tapioca flour) is only used to stop the dough and noodles from sticking. We used bread flour (or all purpose flour), and recommend a whole wheat flour if you can get your hands on it.

How to make udon with your feet:

1. Mix salt into the iced/cold water and stir until dissolved.
2. Place the flour in a large mixing bowl. Pour the salt water over flour, reserving 2 tbsp to add later. Using your finger tips in the shape of claws, mix the flour and salt water together until they bind into fluffy strips. Add remaining liquid knead with the thumbs and palms of your hands, gradually forming a rough ball shape.
3. Place the dough ball in a thick plastic bag and spread out using your feet. When it becomes approximately 20 cm / 8 inches wide, hop off and fold the dough over itself four times (like closing the lid of a cardboard box). Pop it back in the plastic, and spread again with your feet. Do this around 20 – 30 times.

4. Remove from plastic and fold up into clam shape.
5. Place into a plastic airtight bag and cover with a tea towel. Rest in a warm place for 30 minutes. Remove from plastic bag onto floured surface and press dough into a flat circle with the palms of your hands. Dust liberally with cornflour and roll out using a rolling pin until 1 cm / ½ inch thick.
6. If cutting with pasta maker: Cut the dough into 4 equal sections, and shape the dough into a rough rectangular shape.

7. Pop it through the pasta roller starting from size 0 to 2. Roll it through twice for each size.
8. Now feed the dough through the fettuccine cutter on the machine. Dust with a little extra cornstarch if necessary to keep the noodles from sticking together.
9. To cook the udon noodles: Bring a large pot of water to boil. Pop in the udon and cook for around 5 minutes until cooked through.

Wandercook’s Tips

• If using a pasta maker, don’t go any thinner than size 2 when rolling out. You want nice, thick and chewy noodles!
• Once the udon is floating while boiling, you know they’re almost ready.
• Keep an eye on the noodles while boiling them, as they do have the tendency to boil over. Simply reduce the heat slightly if this happens.
• If you want to be super traditional, you can use a Japanese udon knife, known as udon kiri. We’ve found them online, and they look so cool!

FAQs

Variations & Substitutes

• Salt: You can use table salt, sea salt or Himalayan salt for your udon.
• Cornstarch: Sub out with tapioca flour or rice flour in a pinch.

For more noodle goodness, try these next!

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