Cold Soba Noodles with 5 Minute Dipping Sauce
Let’s make Zaru Soba with Cold Homemade Soba Noodle Dipping Sauce! This noodle recipe is a must-try for quick lunches or light dinners. When summer rolls around, there’s nothing better than a refreshing bowl of cold soba noodles paired with this savory dipping sauce. Ready in just 5 minutes and made with only three ingredients—dashi stock, soy sauce, and mirin—this versatile sauce is packed with umami and perfect for busy schedules.
Easy 5 Minute Summer Zaru Soba
If you want a QUICK and EASY lunch ready in 5 MINUTES, you need to try my Cold Soba Noodle with Homemade Dipping Sauce. If you have never had cold soba noodle with dipping sauce before, it is a traditional Japanese noodle dish often served in the summer.I love having Cold Soba Noodles, or Zaru Soba, for lunch because it is fast, healthy, and refreshingly delicious. It is ridiculously easy to prepare too!
Zaru Soba Ingredients
- 2 cups Dashi Stock
- ½ cup Soy Sauce
- ½ cup Mirin
Soba Noodles Recipe:
- 1 stalk Green Onion chopped
- 2 servings Soba Noodles
- Shredded Seaweed
- 2 tbsp Freshly Grated Daikon
Homemade Dashi Soy Dipping Sauce
Cold Soba Noodle Dipping Sauce, also called Tsuyu in Japanese, is a staple recipe for the summer. The dipping sauce is savory and packed with umami flavors. The cold temperature brings out the deep umami flavor, and a little dip goes a long way.
I always pre-make a jar of Soba Noodles Dipping Sauce at the start of the week to save time. All you need to make Soba Noodles Dipping Sauce is 10 minutes, and three simple ingredients, dashi stock, soy sauce, and mirin. I like to save time by purchasing pre-made instant dashi stock, which is an essential staple ingredient in my pantry. Bring everything to a simmer for 5 minutes, and store in a jar to cool down. Once it cools, store in the fridge for up to a month.
If you don’t consume alcohol, you can replace Mirin with 1/2 cup of water with 2 tbsp of sugar for this recipe.
Cooking Soba Noodles
“Soba” stands for buckwheat in Japanese, but sometimes also refers to noodles made of mostly buckwheat flour. These noodles are greyish in color, and have a nutty flavor as you chew on them. It’s popular in Japan as a healthy noodle choice, because it is high in fiber and minerals like magnesium, manganese, and copper. And, it doesn’t spike your blood sugar the way that wheat noodles can thanks to its low glycemic index.
You can purchase Soba Noodles online or at your local Asian grocery market. I enjoy J-Basket Dried Buckwheat Soba Noodles and Hakubaku Soba Noodles. Here’s a tip to keep in mind: you need A LOT of water to prepare soba noodles. It’s because while cooking, the starch can get slimy, and cause the noodles to stick to the bottom of the pot. I like to double the amount of water to prevent this. After the noodles are cooked, rinse with cold water and soak in ice water for 30 seconds to make the noodles extra chewy!
Making Your Own Soba Dipping Sauce
- Mix 2 cups of Dashi Stock, ½ cup of Soy Sauce, and ½ cup of Mirin, and bring to a simmer. Let it simmer for 5 minutes and store in a jar to cool down.
- Prepare soba noodles by adding them to boiling water. Let it cook for around 3-4minuets and drain and rinse with cold water. Let it rest in ice water for 30 seconds, drain and set aside.
- Add chopped green onion to the sauce and add freshly grated daikon and seaweed on top of the noodles.
- Enjoy dipping cold soba noodles in the sauce while adding wasabi or freshly grated daikon to add a little kick!
How To Enjoy Cold Soba Noodles
To serve your cold soba noodles, prepare the noodles according the package instructions and rinse in cold water. Then, pour a cup of dipping sauce on the side with each serving. Serve the noodles with chopped green onion, grated daikon, or wasabi on the side.
Enjoy your noodles by first mixing your favorite garnishes into your noodle sauce. Then, grab a bite of noodle, dip into the cold sauce, and slurp it up!
Do you want more NOODLE recipes? Here are some of my go-to recipes!
- Soy Sauce Pan-fried Noodles (15 Minutes!)
- Vegetable Fried Noodles (20 Minutes)
- Scallion Oil Noodles (Easy & Vegetarian)
- Beef and Broccoli Noodles
Cold Soba Noodle Dipping Sauce.
By Tiffy Cooks
Ingredients
- 2 cups Dashi Stock
- ½ cup Soy Sauce
- ½ cup Mirin
Soba Noodles Recipe:
- 1 stalk Green Onion chopped
- 2 servings Soba Noodles
- Shredded Seaweed
- 2 tbsp Freshly Grated Daikon
Instructions
- Mix 2 cups of Dashi Stock, ½ cup of Soy Sauce, and ½ cup of Mirin, and bring to a simmer. Let it simmer for 5 minutes and store in a jar to cool down.
- Prepare soba noodles by adding them to boiling water. Let it cook for around 3-4minuets and drain and rinse with cold water. Let it rest in ice water for 30 seconds, drain and set aside.
- Add chopped green onion to the sauce and add freshly grated daikon and seaweed on top of the noodles.
- Enjoy dipping cold soba noodles in the sauce while adding wasabi or freshly grated daikon to add a little kick!
Quick, simple, and delicious! Thank you for sharing! All the ingredients are usually always stocked in my pantry. So I love it for when I’m lazy to prep a huge meal and don’t want to run to the grocery store.
I’d never had cold noodles before I made ruby noodles for the blog. It’s a Nigella recipe, and the ruby comes from beet juice, but Asian ingredients are added so it ends up being similar to this recipe. Plus toasted sesame seed oil. Fantastic, and pretty!
Japanese summer dish called “Zaru-Soba”
Great sauce recipe- thank you! But I wanted to point out that most soba noodles aren’t gluten free 🙁
They are a mixture of regular wheat flour and buckwheat flour.
Hi R, thank you for pointing that out!
Tiffy
Thank you so much! I ran out of the bottled soba dipping sauce and this recipe was like perfection!!!!!!! Thank you!!!
Simple and delicious. Nice.