Vegan Kitsune Soba (Japanese Buckwheat Noodle Soup)

Try this simple vegan kitsune soba to satisfy your cravings for Japanese food. It includes a hot, flavorful broth with buckwheat noodles, topped with a lightly sweetened fried tofu.

Vegan buckwheat noodle soup in a bowl

Kitsune Soba is a buckwheat noodle soup that you can find in many Japanese restaurants. This meal originates from the Kanto Region in Japan.

This is a variation of the popular Kitsune Udon. Udon noodles are much thicker than soba noodles and are made from wheat flour. If you’d like a heartier soup, go with udon.

Kitsune (pronounced: kit-sue-nay) means “fox” in Japanese. According to a Japanese folktale, it is said that the fox enjoys eating aburaage. Aburaage is a thin slice of tofu that’s been deep-fried and lightly sweetened.

Ingredients you’ll need

  • Soba noodles – Noodles made with buckwheat and wheat flour.
  • Vegan dashi – Soup stock made with dried kombu or kelp, mushrooms, mirin and soy sauce.
  • Aburaage tofu – Thin, deep-fried tofu, that’s been lightly sweetened. It’s often stuffed with rice to make Inari Sushi. They can be purchased at an Asian grocery store or online.
  • Carrots – optional but adds a bit more flavor
  • Garlic, salt and pepper
Vegan kitsune soba with aburaage and toppings in a bowl

Soup Toppings

These are optional toppings that you can add to this vegan soba noodle soup to make it even tastier. If you can’t add them all, try at least one:

  • Enoki mushrooms – A long thin white mushroom common in many East Asian soups 
  • Wakame (seaweed) – A sea vegetable known for its strong sweet flavor.
  • Ginger paste – Blended ginger made with a little oil.
  • Ground Japanese chili pepper blend (Shichimi togarashi) – A spice mixture known as the seven-flavor chili pepper containing ingredients such as ground red chili pepper and sesame seeds. 
  • Sliced scallions
  • Ground toasted sesame seeds – add a delightful nutty flavor.

Making Vegan Dashi

To extract the most flavor from kombu, soaking it overnight in cold water is the traditional method used. This ensures a slow and full release of the flavor compounds in kombu, which gives the dashi that rich umami flavor.

The stock with kombu and mushrooms is then brought to a boil for 20 minutes to thicken the soup slightly and extract flavors from the mushrooms.

Alternatively, if you’d like a quicker method of making vegan dashi, combine all the ingredients needed for the stock in a large pot and bring to a boil for 20 minutes.

The vegan kombu-mushroom dashi was also the base in my Healthy Vegan Healing Soup and Vegan Miso Hot Pot Soup recipes.

Key Tips For Using Kombu

  • Avoid rinsing the kombu before using it. Kombu is often covered with a white coating. These are the natural compounds that give the dashi the rich umami flavors.
  • Cook the buckwheat noodles separately then drain and rinse before adding to the hot soup. This keeps the final soup broth clear and free of starchy compounds that could alter the flavor.

More Japanese recipes

Vegan kitsune soba with aburaage and toppings in a bowl

Vegan Kitsune Soba

5 from 4 votes
Prep: 10 minutes
Cook: 20 minutes
Total: 30 minutes
Servings: 4
Calories: 390kcal
Print Pin Rate
Try this simple vegan kitsune soba to satisfy your cravings for Japanese food. It includes a hot, flavorful broth with buckwheat noodles, topped with a lightly sweetened fried tofu.

Baking Recipes: For more accuracy, use Metric measurements and measuring spoons.

Ingredients

  • 8 ounce soba noodles
  • 2 pieces kombu, about 4 inches each or 15g
  • 6 shiitake mushrooms, fresh or dried
  • 2 tablespoons soy sauce
  • 1 tablespoon mirin
  • 1 large carrot, sliced
  • 4 cloves garlic, minced
  • 4 cups water
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • 8 aburaage

Additional but optional Soup Toppings:

Instructions

To make vegan dashi/stock:

  • In a large pot, add 4 cups of water, kombu, mushrooms, gluten-free soy sauce, mirin, sliced carrot and minced garlic. Bring to a boil then reduce to medium heat for 20 minutes.
    2 pieces kombu ,6 shiitake mushrooms ,2 tablespoons soy sauce ,1 tablespoon mirin ,1 large carrot ,4 cloves garlic ,4 cups water

To cook the soba noodles:

  • Bring a separate pot of water to boil.
  • Stir in the soba noodles and reduce to medium heat. Cook for 3 to 5 minutes.
    8 ounce soba noodles
  • Drain and rinse soba under cool running water. Set aside.

To serve:

  • Add buckwheat noodles to a bowl, spoon in the hot broth, then top with 2 pieces of aburaage or deep-fried tofu. You can also add other desired toppings at this point.
    Salt and pepper to taste ,Enoki mushrooms ,Wakame ,Ginger paste ,Ground Japanese chili pepper blend ,Scallions ,Ground toasted sesame seeds ,8 aburaage

Notes

  • Avoid rinsing the kombu before using. Kombu is often covered with a white coating. These are the natural compounds which give the dashi the rich umami flavours.
  • To extract the most flavour from kombu, soaking it overnight in cold water is the traditional method used. This ensures a slow and full release of the flavour compounds in kombu, which gives the dashi that rich umami flavour.
  • The stock with kombu and mushrooms is then brought to a boil for 20 minutes to thicken the soup slightly and extract flavours from the mushrooms.
  • More vegan Japanese recipes: Vegan Nabe Hot Pot Soup, Vegan Rice Burger with Kinpira, Vegan Tofu Teriyaki Stir-fry, Vegan Gyozas/Potstickers.
Tried this recipe? Upload a photo in the comments below!If you enjoyed it, please consider leaving a rating. It really helps the blog.

Nutrition

Calories: 390kcal | Carbohydrates: 81g | Protein: 20g | Fat: 1g | Saturated Fat: 0.1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 0.1g | Sodium: 1177mg | Potassium: 288mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 7g | Vitamin A: 2558IU | Vitamin C: 11mg | Calcium: 134mg | Iron: 5mg
Nutrition Disclaimer
Course: Dinner, Soup
Cuisine: Asian, Japanese
Diet: Vegan, Vegetarian
5 from 4 votes (3 ratings without comment)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




The maximum upload file size: 3 MB. You can upload: image. Drop file here

2 Comments

  1. Jim Takahashi says:

    5 stars
    I’ll try this right now. Thanks!