How to Make Tsuyu Sauce, Mentsuyu Recipe for Soba Noodles

Tsuyu sauce, or mentsuyu, is a Japanese soy sauce soup base for broths and dipping sauces. Tsuyu sauce is made of soy sauce, mirin, cooking sake, sugar, and dashi (Japanese soup stock). It can also sometimes contain mushrooms or other additions.

It has a robust Japanese umami from the bonito flakes and kelp stock and tastes distinctively sweet with a tinge of saltiness. The cooking process removes the sharp taste of the soy sauce, resulting in a mild, savoury flavour that doesn't overwhelm other ingredients in a dish.

In our tsuyu sauce recipe, we'll show you how to make mentsuyu at home with different concentrations for various uses. We've also included a vegan mentsuyu version using mushrooms and multiple ingredients to add further umami. 

Whether for cold soba, hot udon soups or as a tempura dipping sauce, we've got you covered.

Jump to:

• Tsuyu Sauce Ingredients
• Tsuyu Sauce Recipe (Mentsuyu)
• How To Use Tsuyu Sauce
• How To Use Bottled Tsuyu Sauce
• How To Make Vegan Tsuyu Sauce
• Is It The Same As Soy Sauce?
• Why is it called Mentsuyu?

Tsuyu Sauce Ingredients

To make this flavourful umami dip, you'll need the following Tsuyu sauce ingredients: 

• Soy sauce (shoyu)
• Mirin
• Sake 
• Edible kelp (kombu)
• Bonito flakes (katsuobushi)
• Sugar (optional)

Soy sauce

It is best to use dark shoyu to obtain a more intense mentsuyu flavour. While you can substitute it with light shoyu, it will result in a slightly bland condiment.

Sake cooking wine

Ideally, you want to use Japanese cooking sake in our tsuyu sauce recipe. Sake tends to be slightly sweeter but has a lighter flavour than Chinese cooking wine like Shao Xing wine.

You can also use Chinese cooking wine as a substitute in a pinch. However, as Chinese cooking has a stronger, more pungent flavour, we recommend using ⅓ less than the amount we use in our recipe.

You can also replace the sake portion with mirin using a 1 to 1 ratio. However, this will make the sauce sweeter.

Dashi stock

To make the dashi stock, you'll need to use bonito flakes and kelp. Bonito flakes are dried, smoked, and fermented tuna fish. The unique cooking processes create a smoky umami taste, giving the soup base its richness. Bonito flakes are a crucial component of Japanese cuisine.

For convenience, you can also replace the bonito flakes and kelp with an instant dashi soup stock powder. However the flavours will not as intense compared to a homemade stock with higher concentration of the raw ingredients. For us, the best tsuyu sauce is one you can customise to your liking.

You can also buy a vegan version of dashi that doesn't use bonito flakes. If you prefer to make your own vegan dashi, you can use shiitake mushrooms. They will provide the same depth to the mentsuyu and taste equally good.

Sugar (optional)

In our recipe, we omit sugar because we think the addition of mirin makes it sweet enough. However, you can also add more sugar for a sweeter soup base.

How To Use Tsuyu Sauce

We usually find mentsuyu in noodle broth, but tsuyu sauce uses vary. Firstly, you can dilute it to create a base for your soba or udon noodles. Secondly, you can use it as a seasoning in place of shoyu. Additionally, you can also add ingredients such as wasabi or grated ginger to layer your dip.

Noodles To Use 

Mentsuyu is often eaten with soba noodles, which are Japanese buckwheat noodles. The thick strands of noodles soak up the light condiment beautifully. You can either eat the soba noodles hot or cold.

Many people prefer to have soba noodles cold since the consistency of buckwheat noodles changes when cooked. Therefore, if eaten cold, you will usually see people dip their noodles into a mixture of wasabi, green onion and mentsuyu dip before consumption.

But if you don't like soba noodles, you can also use ramen noodles or even cook tempura udon, as this condiment creates a delicious soup base for any kind of dish. 

How To Use Bottled Tsuyu Sauce

If you've decided to buy the bottled version of this soup base instead of cooking your own, you must first check whether you need to dilute it before use.

If you've bought your condiment and are unsure how much to dilute it by, a general rule for a cold soba tsuyu sauce recipe is to keep the broth ratio at 1:3. Therefore, you'll need 1 cup of water for ⅓ cup of tsuyu sauce.

Hot noodle soup bases require a ratio of 1:8 or one cup of water for every ⅛ cup of the mentsuyu. For those who prefer homemade versions, refer to our recipe in the later sections and dilute it using the same ratios.

Most brands in the market, such as the hon tsuyu (本つゆ) sauce, are relatively concentrated and need water. In addition, manufacturers often make their sauce with various intensities of flavours to differentiate their brand. So, the number and concentration of ingredients in it can vary the sweet or salty kick of the dip.

Unfortunately, it also means that if you're searching for a store-bought version, you might have to sample a few different brands before finding the one you like most.

While bottled versions are convenient for skipping the cooking process, you might not get the flavour you want. With a homemade version, you can choose to make it sweeter or saltier. You can alter the base umami of the tsuyu by adding different types of ingredients, such as mushrooms, salmon bones, ginger and more.

Additionally, mirin, the sweet Japanese rice wine found in the Japanese soup base, loses its quality after two months. So while you can refrigerate your store-bought mentsuyu to maintain the flavour, you won't be able to obtain a taste similar to the one you had when you first bought the bottle. That's why it's better to make your own version.

How To Make Vegan Tsuyu Sauce

If you require a vegan tsuyu sauce, you'll need to substitute bonito flakes (tuna fish) in the condiment. It's pretty simple. You'll need dried shiitake and kombu in addition to mirin and sake.

The basic formula for a tsuyu sauce substitute is 1 part dashi or shiitake mushroom stock, 1 part soy sauce, 1 part mirin, and ½ part sake sugar. Mix everything, bring it to a boil and then let it simmer overnight.

You can also skip the mushrooms and make a kombu tsuyu sauce. To do that, simply omit the bonito flakes in the regular recipe below and just use konbu as the base.

Is It The Same As Soy Sauce?

Mentsuyu is different from soy sauce as it is more concentrated and uses a mixture of dark shoyu with mirin, dashi, cooking sake and sugar. However, shoyu is usually eaten on its own without mixing other ingredients. 

Due to this mix, you can usually pour some shoyu from a bottle and eat it as a light dip. However, tsuyu sauce, on the other hand, may require diluting with water due to its intense flavours. See our section on how to use bottled tsuyu sauce.

Why is it called Mentsuyu?

The Japanese word mentsuyu has two parts: 'men' means noodles, while 'tsuyu' means stock. It is commonly known as a noodle base. Japanese chefs will use it to season noodle dishes like soba, udon, and somen. However, using it for dishes as a dip has become common nowadays. So, it's a versatile item that pairs well with any cuisine. For example, Japanese people often pair it with deep-fried tempura dishes.

We don't know who, when or how this refreshing side first came to be. However, historians have recorded that the Japanese paired their food with such condiments as early as the 8th century.

So it's clear that this is one soup base that has stuck around. Another interesting fact is that in Japan, the east side tends to use a bonito-rich version of the condiment while the west prefers more kelp in their dip.

We hope you have enjoyed making mentsuyu, an umami condiment that works for almost any Japanese noodle dish. For more unique Asian dishes and delicious condiments, follow us on Instagram @honestfoodtalks.