How to make handmade udon noodles—it’s easier than you might think!

I am in love with this udon noodle bowl I got from the company Flavour Design Studio. Isn’t it gorgeous? I love the way it’s designed to be easy to hold, with a hole for your thumb to fit through, and I love the grooves and holes cut out for your chopsticks to sit in so they don’t roll away from you!

I decided that I needed to make some homemade udon noodles to properly break in the bowl. It would have been a shame to eat store bought noodles out of such a gorgeous handmade vessel! Udon noodles are one of the many varieties of noodles found in Japan. Udon are the thickest of the noodles and are made by kneading wheat flour, salt, and water together. Udon can be eaten hot or cold and are cooked in a variety of ways. We love udon, and while living in Japan we often visited our favorite udon restaurant in Tokyo.

My favorite bowl of udon was nabeyaki udon—udon noodles in a flavorful broth made from dashi and chicken stock, and filled with lots of vegetables, poached chicken, tempura shrimp, and a poached egg. Mr. Fuji’s favorite bowl of udon was “creamy udon”—the noodles were served in a creamy white soup.

For my handmade noodles, I decided to make Kake Udon—udon served in a broth, made from dashi, soy sauce, and mirin, and topped with sliced scallions. This is a simple preparation that celebrates the wonderful flavor of the handmade noodles. Handmade noodles are like homemade bread—they are SO MUCH BETTER than the store bought version.

Take it from me, homemade udon makes for a very happy family!

How To Make Handmade Udon Noodles

Making udon noodles is a simple process. You start by mixing wheat flour (I use a combination of bread flour and all-purpose flour), water and salt in a bowl. The dough at this point is very rough and shaggy.

Then you begin to knead the dough by hand. The dough will slowly come together into a more cohesive ball.

Then you put the dough in a large ziploc bag, and wrap the bag in a thick towel.

This is where the fun really begins. Now you get to do the rest of the kneading with your feet! If you have kids that are anything like Squirrel, they will love helping with the kneading.

You could continue kneading with your hands, but the stiff dough becomes soft and pliable much quicker through using your feet! The kneading helps give the noodles their wonderful chewy texture. You knead the dough this way by walking on it with your whole foot (not just your heel) and turning as you go, so that all of the dough is worked on. You alternate kneading and then rolling the dough out,

and folding it. The more you knead and fold, the smoother and neater your dough will become, and you can work towards forming it into a rectangle.

Then you knead it one more time and leave it in the bag, wrapped in the towel, to rest for 3 to 4 hours. After the dough has rested, you shape the dough into a ball,

put it back in the bag and knead it one last time. Then you roll out the flattened dough, trying to make it roughly rectangular in shape. Then you fold it into thirds, and use a sharp knife to slice it into1/8″–1/4″ ribbons. I made our slices a bit thicker because Mr. Fuji loves thick chewy noodles.

Then you add the noodles to a pot of boiling water, using some chopsticks to lightly stir the noodles and help separate them. After the noodles have cooked for about 6 minutes, and are translucent and firm without a hard core, drain the noodles and then rinse them under cold running water so that they cool rapidly, and continue rinsing them to ensure that all the starch is removed from the surface. Don’t worry if your noodles aren’t perfect—they will still look beautiful and be delicious!

Once your noodles are done, you separate them into bowls and pour hot broth over them, top them with sliced scallions, and add a bit of shichimi togarashi if you want a bit of spice! The chewy noodles are delicious with the simple broth, and you’ll find they quickly disappear.



