I haven’t expected that this miso sauce, made with only a few basic seasonings, would have pleased me as much as that fresh, handsome bunch of shimeji mushrooms.
Although this is not the first time I cook shimeji, I have been cautious with these ‘beauties’ trying to find a way to best utilize them. Finally, I was sold by a recipe – a nice vegetarian recipe – in one of my newly purchased cookbooks.
“Shimeji ใทใกใธ is the third most popular mushroom in Japan. There are many varieties, both wild and farmed. In the wild, they grow at the foot of Japanese oaks (nara), and red pines. The most popular variety for cultivation is buna shimeji, meaning ‘beech shimeji’, so-called because in the wild this variety grows on fallen beech or elm trees.”
Source (and recipe adapted from): the Japanese Kitchen
I like the idea of adding a decent amount of olive oil cause it help dress the shimeji and noodles silkily smooth, but having half cup of it for 3 cups noodles as suggested in the cookbook sounds too oily for me; so the amount is adjusted. I also tweak the original recipe to my convenience, replacing spring onions for parsley and frozen udon for kishi-men noodles (flat udon noodles). Besides, since dried porcini mushrooms are not available with me, I substitute them by dried black mushrooms. .
I must admit that I have made quite a number of adaptations, but everything is still vegetarian-friendly and simple to prepared.
- Ingredients
- 1 package frozen udon, ~230g
- 1 packet shimeji mushrooms, ~100g
- 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 1 tbsp cooking oil
- 1 tbsp sliced spring (green) onion
- Miso Sauce
- 2 tsp white miso paste
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1/8 tsp ground white pepper
- 3 tbsp water from soaked dried black mushrooms (see note below)
- salt to taste
Method
Cut off base parts of shimeji mushrooms, discard. Separate mushrooms. Brush away any dirts from them; the ones with me are clean enough, so I just leave them as they are.
Cook udon according to package instruction (I suggest to cook 1 minute less as the noodles will be cooked again with the sauce). Drain udon.
Heat 1 table spoon cooking oil in pan over low heat; sautรฉ chopped garlic until fragrant. Add in shimeji, and keep stir-frying for about half a minute. Mix in miso sauce and turn up heat to medium to cook for another minute or so. Then, transfer drained udon into the sauce and stir well till done. Dish up, garnish with spring onion (I actually add one whole table spoon of it into the noodles after taking the photos). Serve hot, enjoy!
Note:
Rinse 6 to 8 dried black mushrooms and soak them with 1 cup of water for at least 1 to 2 hours or until soft (highly dependent on mushroom variety). After getting 3 table spoons of their brownish juice for use in this dish, do reserve the remaining liquid and mushrooms for stir-frying vegetables and even for cooking into a soup.
- Category: Featured . Mushroom and Fungus . Noodle .
- 27 comments
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I like this healthy vegetarian recipe. Will look for shimeji in my next shopping. ๐
Looks simple and healthy!! Both my hubby and I are addicted to Japanese miso lately. I usually prepared some fish stock and added white miso paste (with dashi) to make my soup base. ๐
I love this dish. I’m also crazy about Japanese food and sometimes make my own dashi from scratch (no MSG added).
@Little Inbox, Good luck!
@food-4tots,
@Pepy@IndonesiaEats,
I’m also a fan of dashi, and like making it from scratch by using both konbu and bonito flakes. It just goes well with different kinds of noodles. For a simpler alternative, let’s consider this miso sauce.
So healthy and satisfying to just slurp on these smooth noodles and mushrooms.
I’m going to be addicted to eating miso paste recently. This miso sauce is simple and delicious, going really well with shimeji mushrooms with udon. Great shots!
Beautiful udon! Love the shimeji’s texture and goes well with Japanese dashi indeed ๐
I don’t eat udon very much but this one looked really good…with the mushrooms. Great photos! ๐
@Mei Teng,
If not udon, shimeji is also good to go with stir-fries. And adding a few of them into miso soup shall be another tasty treat.
This looks simple and delicious. I think I have seen this cute mushrooms somewhere but have not tried it. I would love to try one day. Thanks very much for sharing.
What cool looking mushrooms. Got any of that delicious looking soup left over?
Have a wonderful weekend.
*kisses* HH
@Heavenly Housewife,
Negative, I selfishly make this for myself while alone at home. This is good for serving one.
What adorable and tasty looking mushrooms. I love the recipe too, the simplicity and it looks like a great soup perfect year round. Yesterday I made something similar to the soup base you have here. Really beautiful photos as usual too!
Udon is my favorite!! ๐ With the mushrooms and miso, I bet it was so delicious.
I love these too! They are also great to do the hotpot!
@Angie’s Recipes,
You are right, another upside of these farmed mushrooms is that they are also available during winter.
No shimeiji here! I love this mushroom as well….
I love these mushrooms. There texture is so lovely and light!
Love Japanese flavours! The miso sauce sounds amazing with the mushrooms.
Sometimes less is more. It goes so well with this recipe. Mushrooms, onions, garlic i love those flavors. I might adjust on oil too. No too found of oil. You picture looks yummy.
The shimeji mushrooms look really cool! I’m not sure if I’ve had them before….
This sounds so simple and delicious! I love mushrooms and udon noodles =D
Is miso paste the paste which you add water to get miso soup? Or is that a completely different thing?
@Von, Sure, you may make a soup with the miso paste. Enjoy! Be it this shimeji udon or miso soup.
It looks delicious….I’ve seen those mushrooms but never tried them. Thanks
Beautiful recipe, I love these little mushrooms, honestly I love any mushrooms, will have to keep an eye out for them so I can try this soon.
That looks so so good! I LOVE mushrooms. I recently made this portobello mushroom tower and it was so yummy!
@Kathryn,
That sounds to be a healthy and simple recipe, yet, greedily I also wish to have a peep at the photo. Thanks.
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