What is Somen Salad?
With a somewhat deceiving name, “somen salad” is a noodle dish (rather than strictly a salad dish) made with a type of thin Japanese noodle called “somen”. The noodles are then topped with various thinly sliced vegetables, egg crepe, crab, kamaboko (Japanese fish cake), or ham and served in a vinegar-based sauce.
Somen salad is actually a Hawaiian-Japanese fusion dish and is not widely eaten in Japan. Instead of somen, we usually opt for ramen noodles and have an almost identical dish called “hiyashi chuka” (also known as “cold ramen salad” in English).
Whether it’s ramen or somen, these refreshing noodle “salads” are served cold and are popular to eat in the summer.
While vinegar-based dressings are the norm because they’re sour and refreshing, I decided to create a completely different dressing for my recipe: toasted sesame dressing with wasabi! The creamy texture with a spicy kick from the wasabi gives a whole different feeling to the dish. (If you’d prefer to use the vinegar, you can use the sauce I made for my hiyashi chuka recipe.)
How I Developed This Recipe
Taking a creative twist on traditional Japanese somen, I’ve crafted a unique salad recipe that combines the lightness of somen noodles with the flavors of Hiyashi Chuka and a Sesame Dressing.
This dish is perfect for hot summer days, offering a refreshing and flavorful alternative to the usual dipping sauce approach.
It’s a nice fusion that brings a new dimension to somen, making it a standout dish for the season!
Visual Walkthrough & Tips
Here are my step-by-step instructions for how to make Somen Salad at home. For ingredient quantities and simplified instructions, scroll down for the Printable Recipe Card below.
To get the most flavor out of your sesame seeds, I recommend toasting them in a dry frying pan on medium-high heat for a few minutes. This step releases the aroma of the sesame seeds for a more intense, nutty flavor.
Once the sesame seeds are slightly golden and you can smell the toasted sesame aroma, you can take them off the heat. It only takes a few minutes! Be sure to shake the pan from time to time. This will help the sesame seeds toast more evenly and help prevent burning.
In Japan, ground sesame seeds are called “surigoma” (すりごま). You can buy them already ground or grind them yourself! I use my trusty “suribachi” (mortar) and “surikogi” (pestle), which you can purchase on Amazon. You could also use a pepper mill or coffee grinder. Generally, food processors are a bit too big for this unless you’re making a large batch.
Finally, mix the ground sesame seeds with the other sauce ingredients and then store in the refrigerator until it’s time to serve.
Add the wasabi to taste. I find that 1 tsp is plenty, but you can add more or less depending on your preference. If you don’t like wasabi, simply leave it out.
The wafer-thin Japanese egg crepe cut into thin strips blends in perfectly with the noodles, to make it, follow these steps:
If you don’t want to make kinshi tamago, you can also use boiled egg, fried egg, or simply leave it out, it’s up to you!
Julienne is a cutting technique where the ingredients are sliced into short, thin strips. It’s a little time-consuming, but it’s necessary for this dish so that the ingredients are easily mixed in with the noodles. It’s also great for presentation!
The only exceptions here are the tomatoes (thinly sliced) and the imitation crab, which I shred using a fork.
Somen is one of the quickest noodles to cook. Generally, they only take about 2 minutes! Of course, check the packaging to be sure.
Once cooked, drain the water by pouring the noodles into a sieve over the sink. Quickly cool them and halt the cooking process by rinsing them under cold running water; this will also remove any excess starch.
Finally, place some ice on the noodles to help make them extra cold! I recommend leaving them in the sieve over a large bowl to drain the excess water.
Take your serving dish and place the noodles at the bottom. Arrange the toppings so that everything is pointing toward the middle, and try to keep similar colors apart so that there’s more contrast between each ingredient.
Finally, top the somen salad with your homemade sesame dressing and mix well before eating!
FAQ
Somen are thin Japanese noodles made by adding salt water to wheat flour, then kneading, oiling, and stretching it into thin strips. It is mostly bought in a dry form and then boiled. The most common ways to eat it are “nagashi somen” (flowing noodles) or chilled somen with dipping sauce.
These pure white, delicate noodles served with a refreshing sauce are a light and easy meal option, perfect for Japan’s hot and humid summers! The fact that they only take a few minutes to cook also means less time in the kitchen, no one wants to be sweating over the stove in summer! If you want to know more about somen noodles, you can check out my chilled chicken and citrus somen noodle soup recipe, where I talk about somen noodles in more depth.
I hope you enjoy this Somen Salad recipe! If you try it out, I’d really appreciate it if you could spare a moment to let me know what you thought by giving a review and star rating in the comments below. It’s also helpful to share any adjustments you made to the recipe with our other readers. Thank you!
More Japanese Salad Recipes
Somen Salad with Japanese Sesame Dressing
Ingredients
Sauce
- 4 tbsp toasted white sesame seeds
- 4 tbsp Japanese mayonnaise
- 2 tsp rice vinegar
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 2 tsp Japanese soy sauce (koikuchi shoyu)
- 2 tsp toasted sesame oil
- 1 tsp wasabi paste
Somen Salad
- 1 egg
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 drizzle cooking oil
- ½ tomato
- 25 g boiled wood ear mushroom boiled and sliced
- ½ Japanese cucumber
- ¼ carrot
- 5 g ginger root
- 20 g imitation crab or ham/kamaboko (or plant-based alternative)
- 2 tbsp canned sweet corn
- 200 g dry somen noodles
- ice cubes optional
Instructions
- Place a dry frying pan on the stove and turn on the heat to medium-high. Add 4 tbsp toasted white sesame seeds and toast until you can smell the aroma and they've turned lightly golden.
- Transfer the sesame seeds to a mortar and pestle (or a pepper mill etc) and grind to a fine powder.
- Add the ground sesame seeds, 4 tbsp Japanese mayonnaise, 2 tsp rice vinegar, 1 tbsp sugar, 2 tsp Japanese soy sauce (koikuchi shoyu), 2 tsp toasted sesame oil and 1 tsp wasabi paste in a container and mix thoroughly. Chill in the fridge until it's time to serve.
- Heat a frying pan on medium-low and coat with 1 drizzle cooking oil using a paper towel to spread evenly and remove the excess.
- While it's heating, whisk 1 egg in a bowl with 1 pinch salt.
- Pour the whisked egg through a sieve to make it smooth.
- Pour a thin layer of egg into the pan (you might need to do this in batches if your pan is small) and fry until 80% cooked.
- Peel the egg out of the pan, roll and cut into thin slices.
- Thinly slice 25 g boiled wood ear mushroom and ½ tomato. Peel and julienne ¼ carrot and 5 g ginger root. Julienne ½ Japanese cucumber with the skin still on and use a fork to shred 20 g imitation crab. Drain 2 tbsp canned sweet corn.
- Boil 200 g dry somen noodles according to the instructions on the packaging. (Approx 2 minutes.)
- Pour the noodles through a sieve and rinse with cold running water to halt the cooking process and cool them quickly. Place some ice cubes in there to chill them further.
- Place the chilled noodles on a serving plate and arrange the vegetables and imitation crab on top.
- Drizzle with the homemade sesame dressing.
- Mix thoroughly before eating and enjoy!
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