Somen (or sōmen) is a very thin noodles served cold which makes it a perfect summer dish. Noodles are served in chilled water and the dipping sauce is also chilled. It is a very simple dish but wonderful to pop in between heavy meals to give your stomach a little bit of a rest.
It is summer in Australia and we sometimes get extremely hot days where the temperature does not come down even in the evenings. On those days, I don’t feel like spending hours preparing for a meal. My appetite also becomes somewhat suppressed.
9 out of 10 times in such weather, I eat cold thin noodles with a small number of side dishes. It is a very simple meal but the plain cold noodles are so refreshing. Extremely thin strands of noodles also have cooling effects, I think, because they resemble streams of water.
The thin noodles I cooked today are called ‘sōmen’ (そうめん or 素麺). You might also have heard the name ‘hiyamugi’ (ひやむぎ or 冷麦), which are also thin noodles. They are both made in the same way and ingredients are the same – flour, salt and water. They are also sold as dried noodles, usually bunched into each serving and tied with a tape (see the photos below).
Top: Sōmen pack which you can buy at supermarkets. 5 bunches per pack. Bottom: Sōmen (left) and Hiyamugi (right) sold at Japanese grocery stores.
Sōmen can be served warm in soup as well as served cold like today’s recipe. When served cold, we call it ‘hiyashi somen’ (冷やしそうめん) where ’hiyashi‘ (冷やし) means chilled. Sōmen cooked in hot soup is called ‘nyūmen‘ (煮麺) meaning cooked noodles.
Sōmen vs Hiyamugi
The only difference between the two is the thickness of the noodles. If the thickness of each strand is 1.3mm (0.05″) or less, then it is called sōmen. If the thickness is between 1.3mm (0.05″) and 1.7mm (0.07″), it is called hiyamugi. Thicker than 1.7mm (0.07″) and it becomes udon noodles.
If you go back to the origin of sōmen and hiyamugi in 14th – 15th centuries, you’ll find that the method of making them by hand was different. But when noodle making machines were introduced during the industrial revolution in the Meiji period, both noodles became almost the same except the thickness of the noodles.
Sōmen is a bunch of white thin noodles but in the case of hiyamugi, you sometimes find the bunch with a couple of pink or green strands included in it. Apparently, colouring strands was introduced to purely distinguish hiyamugi from sōmen.
But these days, you can even find the entire sōmen noodles coloured in green, pink, orange etc with even flavouring!
You can even buy sōmen at supermarkets these days. I haven’t seen hiyamugi sold at supermarkets but if you go to Japanese grocery stores, you can buy hiyamugi.
Dipping Sauce and Condiments
You will need dipping sauce to go with the sōmen. The sauce is a mixture of dashi stock, soy sauce, and mirin. It is a very simple formula to make dipping sauce – 4 portions of dashi stock + 1 portion each of soy sauce and mirin. I use this formula to make dipping sauce not only for cold noodles but also tempura. I actually said exactly the same thing in my post Zarusoba (Cold Soba Noodles)!
In the case of zarusoba, I included chopped shallots (scallions) and wasabi paste as condiments that are to be mixed in the dipping sauce. But for sōmen dipping sauce, I use grated ginger instead of wasabi. Ginger goes very well with sōmen (or hiyamugi), probably because grated ginger is considered to be a summer flavouring.
Serving Noodles to Emphasise Coolness
The most common way of serving sōmen is to place the noodles in a bowl filled with cold water. I sometimes add ice cubes to the water if the water is not cold enough.
Unless I am in a hurry, I even place the noodles to line up in the same direction so that they look like a stream of water. Drop a couple of Japanese maple tree leaves in to make it more like a real stream.
Instead of serving noodles in a bowl of water, you could place ice cubes on a deep plate and place groups of sōmen noodles on them. Using a bamboo basket to serve the noodles also creates a cool atmosphere.
Today’s dish is perhaps not for people in northern hemisphere at the moment but I wouldn’t mind eating cold noodles even in winter! “Eating cold noodles in a warm room while outside is snowing” sounds luxury to me, just because we don’t get snow here in Sydney.
And remember, you need to make slurping noises to eat noodles!
Yumiko
Somen (or sōmen) is a very thin noodles served cold which makes it a perfect summer dish. Noodles are served in chilled water and the dipping sauce is also chilled. It is a very simple dish but wonderful to pop in between heavy meals to give your stomach a little bit of a rest.
If you use dashi stock made from konbu (kelp), the dish will become a vegetarian dish.
- 2 bunches of dried sōmen noodles , about 200g (7oz) in total (note 1)
- Chilled water or a handful of ice cubes
- 200 ml (6.8 oz) dashi stock (note 2)
- 50 ml (1.7 oz) soy sauce
- 50 ml (1.7 oz) mirin
- 2 tbsp finely chopped shallots (scallions)
- 1 tbsp grated ginger
- Japanese maple tree leaves , shiso (perilla) leaves, or cucumber slices (optional)
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Add all the Dipping Sauce ingredients to a small saucepan and bring it to a boil.
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Remove from the heat and cool it down quickly by leaving the pan in the cold water for a while, then place it in the fridge to chill.
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Boil water in a large saucepan. Remove the tape around each bunch of sōmen noodles and place the noodles in the boiling water by spreading the strands.
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Using chopsticks or a thin wooden spatula, stir the pot so that noodles are separated.
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Boil for about 2 minutes (note 3). Drain using a sieve and rinse well.
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Place noodles in a serving bowl, add chilled water (or water + ice cubes), just enough to cover the noodles.
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Using chopsticks or tongs with soft edges, take a small number of noodles at a time and gently lay them in the same direction so that the noodles line up nicely (optional).
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Decorate the noodle bowl with leaves or cucumber slices, if using. Serve with dipping sauce and condiments.
1. You can buy sōmen at supermarkets as well as Japanese/Asian grocery stores.
Instead of sōmen, you can use hiyamugi if you like. Boiling time will be slightly longer if you use hiyamugi.
2. If you are a vegetarian, please use konbu-dashi - refer to Varieties of Dashi Stock.
3. If the boiling water starts bubbling and is likely to overflow, adjust the heat to simmer. Using a deep saucepan also helps prevent the boiling water from overflowing.
4. Serving in cold water is one option to present the coolness of the dish. You can simply serve the noodles on a plate without water but it is probably a good idea to scatter several ice cubes. Otherwise, the noodles might stick each other after a while and you may find it difficult to take just a mouthful size of noodles.
Which dipping sauce should I buy?
Hi jovan, there are quite few brands of condensed dipping sauce in a bottle that you can buy at Japanese/Asian grocery stores. Any sauce that is labelled ‘mentsuyu’ (麺つゆ) should be OK. I used the brands such as Yamaki, Ninben, Yamasa. You might also find ‘konbu tsuyu’ (昆布つゆ), which is a vegetarian sauce made woth kelp. You need to follow the instructions on the back of the label that tells you how much water is required to make it a dipping sauce for noodles.
Hello, the traditional way I know of is when sake is used as well. Is there a reason why some traditional recipes use sake and others don’t?
Hi Ren, sake adds a scent and umami to the dish, but more importantly, it enhances the ingredients. Sake removes the smell (such as fishy smell) from the fish/meat, stops the ingredients from disintegrating, allow the ingredients to absorb flavours better, tenderise ingredients, etc.
In the case of dipping sauce for somen and soba/udon noodle soups, you don’t need to worry about ingredient enhancements.
You can use sake + sugar as an alternative to mirin, so some recipes might use sake instead. But sake is more expensive than mirin and the sweetness from mirin is milder than that of sugar.
Hi Yumiko,
Thank you so much for sharing the authentic Japanese recipes. After re-cooked your yakisoba recipe (it’s super yummy), we would like to try the cold somen. What’s your favorite and most recommended dashi for cold somen?
Hi Yuanita, since cold somen is such a simple dish, I make dashi from scratch per the post, Home Style Japanese Dashi Stock. I like awase dashi which is made with bonito flakes and konbu, but katsuo dashi (just bonito flakes) is also good for cold somen.
If you are thinking of using instant dashi, I’d recommend getting a kind that does not contain salt and other chemicals.
I hope you enjoy cold somen.
Have been wanting to make this since seeing the film Shoplifters last year and finally got around to it! This recipe is perfect for summer. I used the konbu-dashi in the dipping sauce and was really surprised at how good something so simple can taste, will definitely be making these again!
Hi Sean, nothing is good than having cold Somen in hot summer! I and glad you liked it.
Why not just chill the sauce and serve the noodles in a dish with the sauce instead? That would skip the ice water part which dilutes the sauce.
Hi Kenny, the intention of having noodles in iced water is for the diner to feel cool in the humid hot summer by looking at it. It is the Japanese art to eating with your eyes. visual effects are very important part of Japanese Cuisine. If you place the noodles in the chilled sauce, the message to the diner which the dish is trying to convey won’t work as well.
Regarding the sauce getting diluted, it might help if you pick up some somen noodles and let the water drip a bit longer, then dip only half of the noodles, rather than placing the entire noodles in the dipping sauce. This method of partially dipping noodles is the traditional way of eating cold noodles.
Thankyou Yumiko I love your recipes and I like that you said the history of the dish my name is Kris nice to meet you I’m suffer with celiac Disease but my Daughter would love this dish even tho I can’t have wheat and soy I’ve always loved Japanese cooking I find it interesting thankyou for you time and may God bless you
Hi Kristie, thanks for your kind words. I am sorry that you are suffering from Celiac Disease and Japanese cooking does use soy sauce a lot(!). There are gluten-free soy sauce out there but I am not sure if that’s good enough for you to use. I hope your daughter enjoys Somen.