Kake Soba (かけそば (kake soba))
Overview
Kake soba is the simplest and most classic Japanese buckwheat noodle soup. Thin soba noodles are boiled, rinsed and served in a hot broth called kakejiru, made from dashi flavoured with soy sauce and mirin. The broth is dark and savoury with a deep fish flavour from bonito flakes. The bowl is topped only with sliced spring onion and a sprinkle of shichimi chilli pepper, but the same base is used for many other soba dishes topped with tempura, fried tofu or egg. Soba is also eaten cold with dipping sauce in summer, but the hot version is a winter favourite and a quick standing meal at train stations.
History
Buckwheat has been grown in Japan for centuries, and soba noodles became popular in Edo, now Tokyo, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when the city was filled with soba stalls. Kake soba was the cheap fast food of its day. Eating toshikoshi soba on New Year's Eve, to cross into the new year with long life, is still a widespread custom.
Main ingredients
Buckwheat noodles, dashi, soy sauce, mirin, spring onion, shichimi. The soup is built on dashi and is usually served hot. Diet: pescatarian; not usually gluten-free.
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Recipe
Method
- 1
Heat the dashi with the soy sauce, mirin and sugar until just simmering.
- 2
Cook the soba in boiling water according to the packet, then rinse under cold water.
- 3
Dip the noodles briefly in hot water to warm them and divide into bowls.
- 4
Pour over the hot broth and top with spring onion and shichimi.
- ✓
Serve. About 15 min from start to bowl.
Sources
Description, history and recipe written by SoupWiki and checked against the sources above. Calories and times are rough estimates.
