Simple Tempura Udon Soup Recipe with Shrimp and Vegetables

Tempura udon is a warming noodle dish that is crunchy and full of umami. For our recipe, we'll show you how to prepare the tempura prawns from scratch and prepare the udon soup base. 

It only takes 30 minutes to prepare this hearty noodle soup dish for 2 people at home.

Jump to:

• What Is Tempura Udon? 
• Tempura Udon Ingredients
• Tempura Udon Recipe (Shrimp and Vegetables)
• Tempura Making Tips
• Cooking Tips
• Vegetarian
• Calories
• Sides

What Is Tempura Udon? 

Tempura udon is a prevalent Japanese noodle dish and is simply one of Japan's best food inventions. Undeniably, there are many noodle dishes, so one might question what makes it unique. Well, it is a combination of Japan's two favourites: udon and tempura.  

Slightly thicker than ramen, udon is a Japanese noodle made of wheat flour, water, and salt. If you've ever tried our yaki udon recipe, you'll know how good these thick and chewy noodles are. On the other hand, tempura is seafood, chicken, or battered and deep-fried vegetables. 

You can serve this comfort dish with any tempura type, although many top it with fried shrimp. However, some prefer the fried pieces to be served on a separate plate to preserve the crunchiness. Either way, the combination makes up a wholesome dish with its flavourful soup, soft noodles, and crispy fried pieces. 

Tempura Udon Ingredients

Believe it or not, this fantastic noodle dish is easy to prepare on your own. The key tempura udon ingredients in this Japanese comfort dish are as follows.

Udon Noodles

For our recipe, we like to use freshly made noodles or packet udon from our Asian supermarket. Instead of these thick Japanese noodles, you can also use thin soba noodles. 

Shrimp Tempura

We prefer to make our shrimp tempura from scratch, as it always tastes better. We use king prawns, but they are smaller than what you would get at Japanese tempura restaurants. If you want something closer, use large or jumbo-sized prawns. You also need to lengthen the prawns as part of the preparation. In Japanese, they are called "nobashi ebi," which means lengthened prawns.

However, you can also use frozen panko breadcrumb shrimp tempura. These are readily available at most Asian grocery store. As they come already  battered, all you have to do is refry or reheat them in the oven before serving them with your bowl of tempura udon.

Udon Soup Base

Similarly, you can opt for instant soup stock or make the soup from scratch. Since the soup plays a significant role in this dish, preparing it from scratch might sound like a hassle. However, it is not a tedious process and only requires dashi stock, soy sauce, and mirin. You can even replace soy sauce with coconut aminos and mirin with sugar. 

Shichimi Tōgarashi

This particular ingredient is a must-have for every udon soup recipe and is the secret ingredient to achieving the perfect taste. It is a Japanese chilli powder consisting of seven spices, which will add more flavour to the dish. A little shichimi tōgarashi over the soup goes a long way. 

Toppings 

Sure, you can consider the fried prawns as toppings, but adding other ingredients to enhance the tempura udon noodles dish is common. 

For example, a favourite topping for this dish is narutomaki fish cakes. If you're lucky enough to find them at your local Asian supermarket, add them to the dish. You can also refer to our recipe for narutomaki fish cake.

Otherwise, you can top it with Kamaboko fish cakes. Kamaboko is a steamed fish paste that comes in a loaf on a wooden plank wrapped in plastic. If you wish to add more colour to the dish, go for the pink-skinned kamaboko. 

Other topping suggestions include chopped scallions, mitsuba (parsley-like herb), soft-boiled or poached eggs. 

Tempura udon is a meal you can dress with tons of additional ingredients. Add anything you think would go well because the more, the merrier!

Tempura Making Tips

Here are some tips to frying battered Japanese prawns at home for udon.

Making Nobashi Ebi

You will need to manually stretch the prawns to lengthen them. This will give you straight fried prawn tempura rather than ones with a curved tail.

The easiest way to lengthen prawns is to make 3 slits on the upper and bottom sides of each prawn. Then, using a bamboo mat wrapped in cling film, you want to gently press down and shape the prawn into a straight shape. You should feel a slight pop or the resistance disappear.

The cling film wrap will help ensure you're not smashing down on the prawns. It will also help with cleaning later on too.

Making the batter

In making the tempura batter, it is essential to use ice-cold water to keep the fried pieces crunchy and golden brown.

Do not whisk the mixture too much to avoid the formation of gluten. We recommend leaving some powdery crumbs in the batter to ensure it is not too doughy or watery. The dough should be quite runny. Don't worry about the clumps in the batter.

How to fry prawns for tempura udon

Before frying the prawns, ensuring the oil has reached the frying temperature between 160-170°C (320-340°F) is crucial. Otherwise, use the chopstick technique. Stick a wooden chopstick into the oil in the frying pot, and if bubbles quickly and continuously form around it, the oil is ready.

Do not add too many prawns into the frying pan at once to prevent them from sticking together. Once they have turned golden brown, lay them on a paper towel or oil tray to remove excess oil. They will float once they are cooked, but you can continue frying for a bit longer if you prefer them to golden brown. 

Cooking Tips

Prepare the noodles and soup separately to prevent overcooking. Overcooked noodles will be too mushy and soft. 

If you want to add kamaboko as a topping, slice it on the plank according to the amount you need. Place the sliced kamaboko on a plate and attach the rest to the plank.

When making the soup, you can vary the ratio of dashi stock to adjust to the desired taste. You can change the amount of soy sauce used for the preferred degree of saltiness. Doing this will also vary the colour of the broth. The darker it is, the saltier your tempura udon broth will be.

Vegetarian

Vegetarians do not have to dream of having a taste of this comforting Japanese meal. It is possible to make it vegetarian.

Since most of the ingredients are vegetarian-friendly, you will only need to substitute a few of them. For example, you can replace the fried prawns with kakiage tempura (deep-fried mixed vegetables). As for the soup, you can prepare vegetable tempura udon soup with vegetable stock instead.

Cook them as usual, add some vegetarian toppings, and voilà, you will have vegetarian tempura udon noodles.

Calories

A serving of our hot and yummy noodle soup contains about 200 calories. 

Sides

This slurp-worthy dish is already a perfect meal on its own. However, it tastes even better when paired with other side dishes. 

A typical Japanese meal consists of a main dish, some side dishes, a bowl of soup, and rice. So why not complete the meal and have it like the Japanese?

Dumplings or potstickers will go well with this meal. Other than that, gunkan sushi or Japanese spring rolls would complement the dish well. A healthier option would be the classic green salad or some edamame. 

If you plan to share your tempura udon noodles with someone, you can pair them with some fried rice. You might also want to prepare extra fried prawns on the side with preferred dipping sauces. 

Tasty, wholesome and fulfilling! That's how we would describe this Japanese noodle dish. 

Have you tried making our recipe at home? Then, share your hearty bowl of noodles with us by tagging us on Instagram @honestfoodtalks.

Next, check out this viral and tasty TikTok ramen hack that's been taking the internet by storm.