Dehydrated Miso Udon Noodle Soup

Apr 7

With dried seafood, tofu, miso, mushrooms and seaweed, this fantastic lightweight instant soup is a umami flavour bomb for backpacking, and the delicious additives provide more protein and nutrition than any spice sachet!

pot with declicious looking udon noodles with different seaweeds and chunks of seafood — *A pot of umami goodness, or ‘The Essence of Deliciousness’!*

This delicious, savoury soup can be made with as many different ingredients as you like. It is relatively high in protein compared to many instant ramen recipes, what with fish, miso, tofu and seaweeds; an assortment of the latter provides a wonderful variety of textures as well as flavour and nutrition.

You can vary the proportions, too – for longer hikes, add more protein, such as extra tofu or bean curd sheets, or even a tuna sachet! The seaweed is here as a vegetable, so the flavour is relatively strong. We love the taste, but swap out half for other dehydrated vegetables if you prefer a milder effect.

spoonful of udon noodels with seaweed mushrooms and seafood — *Plenty of mushrooms and seaweed as vegetables and you can add more of everything.*

You can also reduce the bonito and kelp powders and increase the miso powder to compensate if you’re worried about salt, but bonito and kelp do add a LOT of flavour. One vegetarian reader has suggested mushroom powder as a replacement for the bonito.

Tweak for a keto diet by adding veg instead of noodles, such as dehydrated zucchini spaghetti. If you have a sachet of sesame oil, this is fantastic added at the end.

smiling hiker eating Japanese Udon noodle dish he is wearing wet rain jacket — *Geoff enjoys warming noodles in the rain!*

A plate of dried spices, herbs, fish pieces, seaweed, mushrooms, tofu, and spring onions surrounded with packets of the same plus noodles.in bac — Ingredients for TWO serves

2 heaped tbspn dried thinly sliced mushrooms (home dried, or commercially dried shiitake, &/or black cloud fungus)
2 tbspns dried sliced spring onion
2 tbspns wakame
2 tbspns soup seaweed
2 pieces kelp (knotted) or 1 tablespn shredded
1 heaped tbspn dehydrated sliced seafood sticks
1 heaped tbspn dehydrated or freeze dried tofu or tempeh
1-2 tspns dehydrated smooth white or red miso paste
1 tspn kelp powder
1 tspn bonito stock powder
140-150g thick instant noodles, flavour sachets discarded
5 cups water (it sounds a lot but it needs to rehydrate the vegetables, seafood and tofu as well as the ramen)

Method

Thinly slice a low-fat brand of seafood sticks and dehydrate at 62C (145F) until crisp.

Freeze tofu (regular not silken) or marinated tempeh, then partially thaw and slice very thinly. Cut into 1.5cm rectangles. Dry at 52C-57C (120F-135F). Freezing improves texture and reduces time required for rehydration.

Spread miso paste thinly onto silicone sheets or baking paper and dehydrate at 52C-57C (120F-135F) until dry and brittle, then powder in a spice grinder. Spread powder back onto sheets and dry another 10 mins, stirring often. Store in a sealed jar or bag with a dessicant sachet, shaking contents daily for the first week. Red miso has a stronger flavour than white.

Place all ingredients into a ziploc bag – this is your jumbo soup flavour sachet for two.

Place two serves of noodles into a sous-vide or freezer bag and add your flavour sachet (discard the commercial flavour sachet). Instant thick ramen or udon are nice, and even non instant dried udon cook in about 5 minutes and are suitable for soaking. Close or seal bag.

*Miso noodles packaged and ready to go! Note the jumbo home made flavour sachet inside*

Recipe Hacks:

Replace home dehydrated miso powder with commercial miso soup powder sachets (some of these also contain tofu, but not really enough for a proper dinner), or commercial miso powder (it is much cheaper to dehydrate your own)
Replace home dehydrated tofu with freeze dried tofu or bean curd sheets
Replace home dehydrated seafood sticks with tuna sachets or double the amount of tofu
Replace dried sliced fresh spring onion with commercial dried fried onion
Vegan Hacks: Omit bonito and double the miso powder; replace seafood sticks with extra tofu and/or bean curd sheets.

*Instant miso soup powders are a great hack if you don’t want to dehydrate miso paste.*

In Camp:

Open bag, add your jumbo flavour sachet to 1250 ml cold water and bring to the boil over about 10-13 minutes. If your stove is faster, soak veg for 5 minutes before bringing to the boil. As soon as it boils, pour soup into the freezer or sous vide bag that’s holding the noodles and leave in cosy for 5-8 minutes depending on noodle thickness and brand. If you have a pot that’s 1600+ml, you’ll have room to add the noodles to the pot, but our 1300 ml one is too small to make a good soup AND fit noodles – you’ll end up with a gluggy mess if you use insufficient water.

Optional: In camp, add tuna sachet and sesame oil for extra protein and yumminess.

Enjoy!