Cold udon, mentsuyu and tenkasu with sencha

A refreshingly simple recipe full of character for sunny days. Fresh udon noodles are topped with a light broth of mentsuyu and cold-infused sencha. Topping: crispy tempura chips with green tea (tenkasu), spring onion and toasted sesame seeds. A plant-based dish, original and full of umami, easy to prepare and ideal for surprising your guests or treating yourself solo. A must-try this summer!

Prep Time

20 minutes

Cooking Time

20 minutes

Servings

4

Ingredients

• 4 bunches iRASSHAi udon noodles
• 200ml of mentsuyu
• 20g sencha iRASSHAi
• chopped spring onion
• Sesame seeds
• 100g tempura flour
• frying oil

Directions

1. The day before, prepare a cold sencha infusion: place the sencha leaves in a bottle with 1l of water. Leave to infuse overnight in the fridge. For this recipe, use only 300 ml of sencha. The rest can be enjoyed as is.
2. The next day, strain the sencha through a fine sieve. Set aside the drained tea leaves.
3. Prepare the tempura batter: in a bowl, dilute the flour with 150ml water. Add the wrung-out sencha leaves and mix gently.
4. Heat an oil bath. Pour the tempura batter in small drops into the hot oil, stirring with chopsticks to form crispy slivers of fried batter (tenkasu). Once golden, drain the tenkasu on paper towels.
5. Bring a large pot of water to the boil. Add the udon noodles and cook over medium heat, stirring as indicated on the packet.
6. Drain the noodles, then rinse thoroughly under cold water to stop the cooking process and remove the starch.
7. Mix the mentsuyu with the cold sencha. Lightly toast the sesame seeds, then crush them in a mortar.
8. Divide noodles among bowls. Pour over the chilled mentsuyu-sencha mixture. Garnish with tenkasu, chopped spring onion and sesame seeds. Serve immediately.