Dinner Tonight: Hot Soba

Name: Dinner Tonight: Hot Soba
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 1 h
Yield: 4 people
Ingredients: 5 cups water; 1 large piece of kombu, approximately 10 by 4-inches, or about 1/2 ounce total, rinsed; 1 1/2 cups packed katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes); ½ cup Japanese soy sauce; ½ cup mirin; ½ cup enoki mushroom, ends trimmed, halved; 12 pea pods, trimmed; 14 ounces dried soba noodles; 2 scallions, ends trimmed, both green and white parts thinly sliced at an angle; 2 sprigs watercress, chopped; Pinch of togarashi

By seriouseats · From Open Recipes · 11 ingredients

Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Kombu and watercress share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Dinner Tonight: Hot Soba

4 people

Prep30 min

Cook1 hr

Ingredients

Directions

Step-by-step directions aren't available for this recipe. See the full recipe at the source →

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

134Calories

9 gProtein

1 gFat

25 gCarbs

Counts 5 of 9 ingredients. The other 4 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 5 portions

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Pea	1/2 cup (72g)	62
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Mushroom	1/2 cup sliced (35g)	15
Soy Sauce	1 tbsp (15ml)	9
Watercress	1 cup (34g)	4
Water	not in our table	0
Kombu	not in our table	0
Katsuobushi	not in our table	0
Bonito	not in our table	0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By seriouseats. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Kombu + watercresstop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Kombu + bonitotop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together16 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Kombu + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Mushroom + watercresstop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together99 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Sauce + watercresstop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together295 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Like knowing why a recipe works?

The free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.

Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.