Low Carb Hiyashi Chuka

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Hiyashi Chuka (冷やし中華) is Japanese cold ramen with colourful toppings. This shortcut low carb hiyashi chuka is a 10-minute recipe to enjoy my favourite Japanese cold noodles without guilt. I am on a pre-holiday season diet so I will revive my habit to eat one low carb meal a day. Also, since I now have limited time to make my daily meals, my cooking is now more focused on shortcuts and efficiency. This recipe is also great for meal prep – you can make an extra serving (sauce separate) and chill in a covered bowl container in the fridge overnight. You will have an instant pretty hiyashi chuka meal the next day!

Related Recipe:

• Low Carb Bibim Guksu

See Also:

• Hiyashi Chuka (Japanese Chilled Ramen Noodles)
• Low Carb Tom Yum Shrimp Shirataki Noodles
• Low Carb Air Fryer Margherita Pizza
• Bacon Spinach “Spaghetti” (Konjac Noodles)

If you have the good fortune of not needing to eat low carb (lucky you!), replace the shirataki noodles used in this recipe for fresh or dried ramen or udon noodles.

STEP-BY-STEP PHOTOS (LOW CARB HIYASHI CHUKA)

Step 1: Make the short cut sauce

One day I had a rare eureka moment when I was looking at the list of ingredients for hiyashi chuka. What if I combine tsuyu (soba noodle sauce) with sushi vinegar (which is rice vinegar + sugar + salt)? Wow the idea really worked! This combination closely resemble the taste of hiyashi chuka sauce and it only took a minute. From there you can add slight variations such as grated ginger, chilli oil or even roasted sesame sauce. It’s a really convenient shortcut if you already have both sauces in your pantry.

STEP 2: Prepare and assemble the noodles

• (1) As a low carb substitute for ramen noodles, I am using rice shirataki which is very low in calories. It resembles the look of fresh ramen noodles, so it is apt to use it for hiyashi chuka. If you can’t find this type of shirataki noodles, you can use regular white shirataki noodles.
• (2) Drain the liquid from the pouch and place the drained noodles in the pan. Fry it without any oil to remove excess moisture from the noodles. This extra step greatly improved the noodles ability to absorb the noodle sauce. Then chill the noodles with ice cubes or in the fridge.
• (3) Toppings – I am using reconstituted kelp (wakame), ready-to-eat tamagoyaki & crab sticks (bought from Donki as a short cut), cherry tomatoes and cucumber. They took less than 5 minutes to prepare. Chill them in the fridge until ready to serve.
• (4) Assemble everything together with the prepared noodles in the middle of the plate. Arrange all the toppings (including a generous scoop of flying fish for a crunchy texture). Serve with the chilled sauce by the side.

STEP 3: Serve

Pour the sauce over the noodles, mix well and enjoy!