Egg & Soba Noodle Bowl

I thought I’d share this recipe that was linked to us by @BryWisteria from this post offering us helpful resources during difficult times.

This recipe is from Better Homes & Gardens, and costs around $3 a serving. The recipe is called Egg & Soba Noodle Bowl, and has a yummy broth and vegetables in it.

Ingredients:

  • 6 oz. dried soba noodles or dried multigrain spaghetti
  • 8 oz. baby bok choy, quartered lengthwise
  • 4 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth or vegetable broth
  • 2 cups water
  • ¼ cup white miso paste
  • 2 Tbsp. reduced-sodium soy sauce
  • 2 carrots, julienned (1 cup)
  • 4 oz. cremini or shiitake mushrooms, stemmed and sliced (1 1/2 cups)
  • 6 soft- or hard-cooked eggs, peeled and halved
  • Cracked black pepper

I mostly followed this recipe. :wink: I happened to have a box of dried Udon noodles in my cupboard, so the cooking time was very different than what the recipe suggested. This recipe claims to make 6 servings, but that would be very little broth per bowl in my opinion - 4 servings seems more accurate to me. I also only cooked 2 eggs for the 2 bowls I was making, so this helped. Perhaps a bit more costly than the promised $3 per serving, but still inexpensive, healthy, and so, so good!

I assembled all the ingredients first.

Chopped the carrots and quartered the bok choy:

Next I prepared the soft-cooked eggs. The recipe recommends 8 minutes at a gentle boil - I reduced that to 7 minutes. I lifted them out carefully and put them in a small bowl of ice water that I had waiting. This stops the cooking and makes peeling easier. After peeling them, they can be set aside till the end.

Next I cooked my Udon noodles. My brand called for 12 minutes and that was about right. When the timer went off, I cut the heat under the pot and moved the pot to a cold burner. I then used pasta tongs to lift the noodles out, let them drain into the pot a little, then arranged them in serving bowls.

Next, using a slotted spoon, I lowered the sliced bok choy into the hot pasta water to blanch it for about 30 seconds, then placed the bok choy over the cooked noodles.

Then in a smaller pot I added the vegetable broth, 2 cups water, brought up the heat until it was at a good simmer, then whisked in the white miso paste and soy sauce. When the miso was blended I added the carrots. Let the carrots cook just a few minutes.

Then it was time for the fun of finishing the bowls. I ladled in the broth over the pasta and bok choy, sliced the eggs and arranged the halves, and scattered a few sliced white mushrooms over the top. Topped it off with fresh ground black pepper.

Note: the recipe calls for cooking the mushrooms in the broth with the carrots. I prefer raw sliced mushrooms so did it that way. The recipe also doesn’t mention blanching the bok choy or cooking it in any way - letting the heat from the broth soften it. I’m sure either way is fine - I just blanched it with the pasta water to get it a little easier to cut in the bowl.

This came together pretty easily and was fun to make. I don’t think the serving portions are quite accurate, as stated. Also - the white miso paste I found was 8 oz for $10! Not cheap stuff. I used half of it in this batch and did have broth left over, so 4 servings is fair.

I hope you enjoy it if you decide to make it!

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That looks great! Thanks for sharing!

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You’re welcome! Thanks for reading! :heart:

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Yum yum yum! :heart_eyes:

It’s so much fun to see this come together step by step. And the final bowl is worthy of a magazine cover! Beautiful pictures and job well done, @Feathertip :clap: :heart:

I appreciate all your cooking tips. I think I also would have blanched or even boiled the bok choy in the broth in hopes of making it easier to eat and digest. If I may ask, what are your thoughts on the taste? Is there anything you’d tweak (add or leave out) if you were to make this again in the future?

Thanks again for bringing us along on your delicious kitchen adventure! :woman_cook: :sparkles:

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Thank you, Bry! Glad you liked the pics and tips!

My takeaway is that I’d like to try this again, and maybe add a bit more soy sauce. The white miso was fine - I was hoping it wouldn’t be overpowering, because for me, a little goes a long way, but it was perfect. I do like soy sauce, so I’d tweak that. I think I got spooked by the switch to Udon noodles, as they are reputed to absorb more sodium, and I didn’t want an overly salty flavor. But they were great - no problems.

Like you mentioned, blanching the bok choy definitely helped it in the bowl - but it could have stayed in that hot pasta water for a good 3-5 minutes and it would have been easier to cut with a soup spoon.

Another thing I’d do is break the noodles in half before cooking - I usually do that with heavier pasta but I just forgot. That, and the carrot sticks would have been fine at a one-inch length - easier to scoop up in the spoon! :wink:

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Thank you for all your notes! :raising_hands: Sounds like a little more soy sauce, a longer blanching time for the bok choy, and potential shifts to the length of the noodles and carrots are all things to consider for future batches. That’s very helpful! I’ve got this on the to-cook list if I can be organized enough to collect all the ingredients :smile:

Thanks again, @Feathertip, I’ve really enjoyed the step-by-step cooking process! It’s always fun to see tasty magick be manifested :woman_cook: :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

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