Recipe Review - Yotam Ottolenghi's Udon Noodles with Miso and Walnuts

This recipe was published in The Guardian and in Ottolenghi's book Plenty More a few years ago. 

Short Summary

💖 Overall                👌👌👌👌

✌ Taste                   👌👌👌👌👌

👶 Kids Approved     Loved it

💪 Difficulty               Easy

Preparation 

Recipe is very easy to prepare. 

My dish turned out a bit oily. The aubergines absorb a lot of oil and then you are adding more oil when you are making the sauce. Next time, I will add less oil. 

You might be tempted to skip the walnuts. Please don't! They add a nice flavour and crunch. 

Most ingredients are easy to find. My local supermarket has miso and I can find dashi at the local Asian store. Alternatively, you can order online on Amazon. 

Roasted walnuts give a smoky and nutty flavour to the dish. 

Aubergine are fried.

Making the sauce:

Taste and flavour

The flavour of this dish is very rich and full of umami from the miso.  The walnuts add a very nice crunch to the dish while the aubergine become creamy, so together they create a nice blend of creaminess and crunch. 

As mentioned, my dish turned out a bit too oily, so I would recommend you hold off some of the oil when recreating this meal.

Is it worth it?

Both kids and husband loved this dish. It is very rich and filling. This recipe gets 4 stars out of 5 due to being a bit too oily for me. 

Yotam Ottolenghi's Udon Noodles with Miso and Walnuts

Ingredients

½ medium cucumber

3 spring onions
2 small aubergines
250ml sunflower oil, plus 1 tbsp extra
Salt
100g shallots, thinly sliced
1 tbsp chopped ginger
2 garlic cloves, crushed
120g walnuts, lightly toasted and roughly chopped
2 tbsp mild miso paste
150ml vegetarian dashi
3 tbsp mirin
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp caster sugar
1 tbsp sake, optional
250g udon noodles

Directions

Cut the cucumber into long, thin, 2mm-thick strips and chill. Cut the spring onions in two from top to bottom, then cut into thin julienne, put into a bowl of iced water and chill.

Use a potato peeler to peel strips of skin from the aubergines, from top to bottom, so it leaves a stripy pattern; cut the aubergines into 2.5cm-thick discs, then cut each disc into four. Heat 250ml oil in a ­medium pan and deep-fry the ­aubergine in batches until golden and cooked through. Transfer to a colander, sprinkle with a little salt and leave to drain.

Put the shallots and remaining oil in a large pan and sauté on medium heat. Once they soften up, after about two minutes, add the ginger and garlic, and cook on low heat for five minutes. Add the walnuts and fried aubergine, stir and set aside.

In a bowl, whisk the remaining ­ingredients bar the noodles, ­cucumber and spring onions, then add to the pan.

Cook the noodles as ­instructed on the packet. While you do so, ­reheat the sauce and allow some evaporation so it thickens a ­little but not much. Serve individual portions of hot noodles, topped in the centre with walnut sauce. Finish with a sprinkling of the cucumber and spring onion, drained and dried.

Recipe credited to Yotam Ottolenghi, Plenty More