Traditional Beef Yakisoba

This traditional beef yakisoba with noodles is perfect for a quick and balanced dish. It takes just 15 minutes and uses various vegetables, giving you an excellent range of vitamins and minerals.

The yakisoba sauce is full of umami flavours that work with steak and get balanced by the traditional garnish of pickled ginger.

What is Yakisoba?

Yakisoba is a Japanese noodle stir-fried dish. Some people confuse the soba as buckwheat noodles, but the dish translates to fried noodles and uses wheat style ramen noodles. It first appeared in food stalls in Japan after world war ll.

The usual meat is pork, but we’re going to make beef yakisoba. The other traditional ingredients include cabbage, onions, carrots and beansprouts with a savoury yakisoba sauce garnished with pickled ginger or bonito flakes.

Why this Recipe Works

This recipe is a classic dish and rich in umami flavours. The pickled ginger garnish adds some acidity to it to balance out the strong umami flavour.

The sauce is made with classic ingredients commonly used with beef like Worchester and oyster sauce, so I’ve decided to add one of my favourite cuts of steak, the rib eye.

It’s extremely quick and easy to make, especially if you use a food processor to slice the vegetables or have leftover noodles. You could make this whole dish in less than 15 minutes if you wanted to.

What Type of Beef to Use

You don’t need to use anything too costly to make this recipe and you only need one steak per two people. Don’t

A wide range of steaks can fit into making this tasty beef yakisoba. If you cut the beef very thin, you can get away with more budget-friendly steaks like flank steak or rump.

You don’t need to use anything too costly to make this recipe, and you only need one steak per two people. Don’t waste money on premium steaks like dry-aged or wagyu because a lot of those subtle flavours will be masked by the savoury sauce.

The main thing is to cut against the grain and not overcook the steak or become chewy.

Steaks I’ll recommend for beef yakisoba include…

• Rib Eye
• Sirloin
• Rump
• Flank Steak
• Strip Steak
• Tenderloin
• Porterhouse

Beef Yakisoba Ingredients

Many of these ingredients follow the more traditional recipe style, which is on the umami side.

If you like fresher, more balanced flavours, try adding 2 tbsp of lime juice to the yakisoba sauce and garnish with fresh coriander.

Noodles – Dry wheat noodles are the best noodles to use. They hold up the best textural wise, but you can use fresh wheat noodles to speed things up too.

Yakisoba Sauce – The ingredients for yakisoba sauce: Worchester sauce, oyster sauce, dark soy sauce and mirin are normally found in most large grocery stores. I prefer to use the Chinese supermarket for these ingredients because the ingredients tend to have better flavours for Asian cooking.

Pickled Ginger – Is usually found with the other Asian ingredients; it’s pink and in a jar with pickling juice at ambient temperature. Once opened, you can store it in the fridge.

Expert Tips & Tricks

The best way to finely slice beef

It takes a little more time before preparation but makes for very finely sliced beef. Place the steak in the freezer for 20 minutes; afterwards, use a very sharp knife and cut very finely against the grain.

How to quickly finely slice vegetables

If you’re in a rush and want your vegetables cut fast, peel them and place them in a food processor. Make sure the cutting blade isn’t too thin so that you can have a bite for texture.

Use a Wok

There is a good reason why woks are one of the most used pieces of equipment in many Asian restaurants. They add flavour! Each wok adds a unique flavour to a dish, which people call ‘wok hay’. If you have a well-seasoned wok, make sure to use it!

Step by Step Recipe

1. In a large pot of generously boiling water, cook wheat noodles until package instructions, drain and place to the side. Meanwhile, prep the ingredients and mix the Yakisoba sauce ingredients in a bowl, and place to the side.

2. Over high heat, preheat a large wok and season the beef generously with sea salt and pepper. Add 1 tbsp of cooking oil and sear the beef for 1 to 2 minutes (2 minutes for well done). Once seared, pour the beef onto a plate.

3. Add another tbsp of oil to the wok, then add cabbage, carrots and onions. Stir fry for 3 minutes, until al dente.

4. Add bean sprouts and stir fry for 1 minute.

5. Add the seared beef and yakisoba sauce to the stir fry then reduce for 10 to 20 seconds.

6. Add and mix through the noodles into the sauce until hot. Turn off the heat and serve with pickled ginger.

Frequently Asked Questions

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