Miso butter udon with corn and spinach
Chewy udon coated in a salty-sweet miso butter sauce with golden corn and spinach, a cozy Japanese noodle bowl in 20 minutes.
- 20 min total
- 15 min hands-on
- Follow-a-recipe easy
- Serves 2
- About $3.03 a serving
- 470 calories
- Vegetarian
Dolly says: Read the steps once before you start. Everything goes smoother after that.
Ingredients
For 2 servings.
- 2 udon noodles
- 3 tbsp butter, divided
- 1 cup frozen corn
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 cups baby spinach
- 2 tbsp miso paste
- 2 stalks green onions, sliced
From your pantry
- 1 tsp soy sauce
- ¼ tsp black pepper
- 1 pinch red pepper flakes (optional)
Each serving has about 470 calories, 11 g protein, 65 g carbs and 20 g fat, and costs about $3.03 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No butter? Ghee works.
- No frozen corn? Canned corn works.
- No baby spinach? Kale or arugula works.
- No green onions? Chives work.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
Bring a pot of water over high heat and cook the udon as the package says. Scoop out ½ cup of the cooking water, then .
Bring to a boil. It means heating a liquid on high until it’s fully boiling before you move on. A lid on the pot gets it there faster, which makes it a good moment to chop something.
How you’ll know: Big bubbles break all over the surface, and they keep coming when you lift the lid.
Drain. Draining means pouring off liquid, like tipping pasta into a colander or spooning extra fat out of the pan. Pour hot grease into a can or jar, not the sink, where it hardens and clogs the pipes.
How you’ll know: Only a few drips are left, and the food isn’t sitting in a puddle.
High heatTimer: 2 min
Meanwhile, 1 tablespoon butter in a large over medium heat. Add the corn and cook 3 to 4 minutes, stirring now and then, until in spots.
Melt. Melting means gently heating something solid, like butter or cheese, until it turns liquid. Low or medium heat keeps it from browning or burning.
How you’ll know: It’s smooth and liquid, and butter may foam a little but hasn’t turned brown.
Skillet. A skillet is a frying pan: wide and flat with low, sloped sides. The shape lets steam escape, so food browns instead of stewing.
How you’ll know: It’s the pan you’d fry an egg in, and a 10 or 12 inch one handles most recipes.
Golden brown. Golden brown is the color of good toast, somewhere between yellow and light brown. It means the outside is cooked and crisp but not burnt.
How you’ll know: It looks like toast and smells toasty; dark brown with a bitter smell means it went too far.
Medium heatTimer: 3 min 30 sec
Add the garlic for 30 seconds, then the spinach, and until it .
Toss. Tossing means gently lifting and turning food so everything gets coated, like pasta in sauce or vegetables in oil. It coats every piece evenly without mashing anything.
How you’ll know: Every piece looks glossy or evenly coated, with no dry spots hiding underneath.
Wilt. Wilting means cooking leafy greens just until they go soft and collapse. Greens shrink a lot, so a big pile of spinach becomes a small handful, and that’s normal.
How you’ll know: The leaves turn soft and deep green and slump into the pan, usually within a minute or two.
Medium heat
Add the rest of the butter, the miso, soy sauce and ¼ cup of the cooking water and stir until it into a smooth, glossy sauce.
Melt. Melting means gently heating something solid, like butter or cheese, until it turns liquid. Low or medium heat keeps it from browning or burning.
How you’ll know: It’s smooth and liquid, and butter may foam a little but hasn’t turned brown.
Medium heat
Dolly’s tip: Mash the miso against the pan with your spoon so no lumps are left.Add the udon and 1 minute, adding more cooking water if it looks dry. Serve with the pepper, green onions and of pepper flakes.
Toss. Tossing means gently lifting and turning food so everything gets coated, like pasta in sauce or vegetables in oil. It coats every piece evenly without mashing anything.
How you’ll know: Every piece looks glossy or evenly coated, with no dry spots hiding underneath.
Pinch. A pinch is what you can hold between your thumb and two fingers, less than an eighth of a teaspoon. It’s a small, forgiving amount, so there’s no need to measure.
How you’ll know: It’s a light sprinkle you can barely see on the food, not a little pile.
Medium heatTimer: 1 min
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
