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–+ servings

Tempura Soba Noodle Soup

Prep Time15 minutes
Cook Time15 minutes
Chilling time30 minutes
Total Time1 hour
Author Yuto Omura
Servings 4 portions

Ingredients 
 

Tempura

  • 150 ml cold water chilled
  • 100 ml carbonated water chilled
  • 30 g cornstarch sifted and chilled in fridge
  • 150 g cake flour sifted and chilled in fridge
  • cake flour for dusting
  • 1 egg chilled
  • 8 black tiger shrimp or similar large prawns
  • 4 fresh shiitake mushroom stems removed
  • 100 g eggplant cut into wedges and soaked in cold water
  • 8 perilla leaves (shiso) ooba/shiso
  • cooking oil for deep frying

Soba

Toppings (Optional)

  • finely chopped green onions to garnish
  • kamaboko fish cake
  • Japanese chili powder (shichimi togarashi) (shichimi togarashi) optional
  • dried wakame seaweed rehydrated

Instructions 

Prepping the Prawns

  • First, deshell 8 black tiger shrimp leaving the tail on, and remove the veins.
    Shrimp separated from shells and placed in separate bowls on a white background
  • Place the prawns in a bowl with 2 pinches of salt and a tsp of cornstarch and rub it over the surface of the prawns. The salt is to dehydrate them so they fry better and the corn starch helps clean them.
    coating shrimps with flour in a mixing bowl
  • After a few minutes, run the prawns under cold running water to rinse off the salt and cornstarch, and pat them dry with kitchen paper.
    drying washed raw shrimp with kitchen paper
  • Next, cut the tails. Place the shrimp on its side and with the tail folded in half and trim it diagonally. The pointy tip should be cut off and be the shorter part of the diagonal. (This stops oil from splattering out when it's frying and makes a nice presentation.)
    cutting tails of shrimp to make shrimp tempura (ebiten)
  • Turn the prawn so the underbelly is facing up, and make diagonal incisions along the whole body. The incisions should be about 1cm apart and go about 1/2 way through the prawn.
    making incisions along the body of shrimp so that it doesn't curl when cooking

Tempura

  • Preheat your oil to 180 °C °C (356 °F). While you wait for it to heat up, take 150 ml cold water and 100 ml carbonated water from the fridge and pour them into a bowl.
    chilled water in a bowl to make tempura
  • Add 1 egg and whisk. Remove any foam with a spoon.
    scooping foam out of eggs to make tempura batter
  • Take 150 g cake flour and 30 g cornstarch from the fridge and add it to a bowl one third at a time. Mix roughly between each addition. (It's fine to have lumps.)
    tempura batter in mixing bowl with wooden chopsticks
  • Dry your prawns and vegetables (4 fresh shiitake mushroom, 100 g eggplant, 8 perilla leaves (shiso)), then lightly coat them in flour. Dust off any excess.
    cut eggplant coated with flour
  • Test your oil by adding a drop of batter, if it floats and sizzles it's ready to start cooking.
    Dip each ingredient in the batter and then place it in the oil. Be careful not to overcrowd the pot. (I recommend cooking each type of ingredient together in batches rather than mixing them. Example: Shiso leaves batch, aubergine batch, shrimp batch etc.) Keep the batter in the fridge between batches.
    frying vegetable tempura (shiitake mushrooms and eggplants) in a Japanese style fryer
  • Once the batter puffs up and becomes crispy, remove the tempura from the pot before they become golden. Place on a wire rack to allow the excess oil to drop off.
    eggplant tempura on a wire rack

Broth

  • Boil 400 g dry soba noodles in a separate pot, follow the instructions on the packaging.
    boiling soba noodles in a pot of water
  • Bring 1000 ml dashi stock to a boil and then add 5 tbsp Japanese soy sauce (koikuchi shoyu) and 2 tbsp mirin. Boil for 2-3 minutes, then turn off the heat and mix in ½ tsp salt.
    udon soup in a sauce pan
  • Once the soba noodles are ready, pour them into a colander and then run them under cold water and divide them into serving bowls.
    soba noodles in a cream and brown striped bowl
  • Pour the broth over the noodles and arrange the tempura on top. Garnish with your choice of toppings.
    Tempura soba topped with tempura shrimp and vegetables, chopped green onions, kamaboko fishcakes and wakame seadweed in a striped bowl on a dark wooden effect background
  • Enjoy!

Notes

  • Be careful not to let the tempura turn golden, real tempura is very light in color.
  • For specific tips on how to make crispy tempura, check the post above.
  • Note: While the nutritional information includes the full serving of broth, most people in Japan don't actually finish all the soup.