This healthy and light vegan Instant Pot udon soup is made with mushrooms and soy sauce infused broth and is served with protein-rich edamame and crispy tempeh. It's quick, easy, and perfect for a weeknight meal.
Here at Instant Pot Eats, we love making vegan recipes in our pressure cooker, and we're particularly excited to share this udon noodle soup because it's both nourishing and delicious. For a plant-based meal, it packs in a substantial amount of protein that will keep you well satiated.
Instant Pot Udon Soup
There are three elements to this dish: the tasty broth with mushrooms and vegetables (this part is made in your Instant Pot), the udon noodles (cooked on the stove) and the crispy tempeh (pan-fried on the stove). The idea is that while the broth is cooking in the pressure cooker, you can simultaneously prepare the other two components and have the dish ready in a flash.
Before we get into the full recipe, let's break down the ingredients and what you need to do.
Making Udon Broth In Instant Pot
Our broth flavour comes from beautiful aromatics such as ginger, garlic, chili and scallions, the dried shiitake mushrooms, which add that essential umami flavour, soy sauce (or Tamari for a wheat-free version) and lime juice.
These are ingredients that you can get in most places (see shopping notes below). If you can't find shiitake mushrooms (dried or fresh), feel free to add dried porcini or oyster mushrooms, or slice a few regular button mushrooms.
We're also adding some lovely protein-rich edamame beans (frozen and sold in a pack) and good ol' broccoli, plus cilantro for garnish. Can you taste the broth in your mind already? Mmmmm.
For noodles, we used dried udon noodles that you can purchase in the Japanese section of your supermarket, at Asian grocers, Whole Foods and online (see notes below). You can also use regular ramen noodles, rice noodles (for GF option), soba buckwheat noodles OR zucchini noodles to make this dish more paleo/Whole30 friendly (please use coconut aminos instead of soy sauce).
How To Prepare Udon Noodles
Cook the noodles according to the packet instructions. We recommend to undercook them ever so slightly (al dente like) as they will continue to cook in the hot broth in your bowl.
How To Cook Tempeh For Udon Soup
Tempeh is essentially pressed fermented soybeans. You can usually find it in the refrigerated section of your local health food stores or in the vegetarian/vegan products section (it would be in the cold section, though). It has a texture of hard feta cheese, and you can easily slice it or dice it.
The best way to prepare tempeh is to pan-fry until crispy and to drizzle it with a little soy sauce or season with salt and pepper. Its taste is pretty neutral, and it will take on whatever flavours you add to it. In our recipe, we used a little soy sauce, honey and lime juice to drizzle over the crispy tempeh slices. So tasty!
If you can't get tempeh, feel free to serve with diced silken tofu or pan-fried firm tofu or any other vegan protein of choice.
Finishing The Soup
Once the broth is cooked, and noodles and tempeh are ready, assemble the soup ingredients in a bowl with hot broth poured over the top. Garnish with extra chili and fresh cilantro leaves.
Shopping For Ingredients
Most of the ingredients used in this recipe can be found either in your larger supermarket or a health food store, at Whole Foods and Trader Joe's, and online of course. Get some of the ingredients on Amazon here: dry udon noodles, dry shiitake mushrooms, frozen edamame beans, tamari soy sauce (wheat-free).
MORE VEGAN INSTANT POT SOUP RECIPES
- Find more Instant Pot Eats Vegan Recipes here
- Carrot Lemongrass & Cilantro Soup
- Instant Pot Turkish Split Pea Stew
- Instant Pot Farmhouse Vegetable Soup
- Thai Red Curry Lentil Soup (Vegan)
- Instant Pot Noodle Soup Recipes
Full Recipe
Find the full list of ingredients, instructions, and a nutritional breakdown below. If you have questions or cook this recipe, please let us know in the comments, and make sure to rate this recipe so it’s easy for others to find.
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Instant Pot Udon Soup (Vegan)
Ingredients
Noodles
- 4 oz. udon noodles dried, or choice of noodles such as rice or soba (120 g)
For the broth
- 3 scallions white and pale green parts of the stems diced
- A handful of cilantro stems chopped (reserve the leaves for serving)
- 4 slices of fresh ginger
- 1 large clove of garlic finely diced
- ⅓ long red chili sliced
- 5 shiitake mushrooms dried or fresh
- 8 broccoli florets
- ½ cup edamame frozen
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce or Tamari sauce
- 4 cups vegetable stock
For crispy tempeh
- 5 oz. pressed tempeh sliced into strips (150 g)
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil or other cooking oil
- 1.5 tablespoons soy sauce or Tamari sauce
- 1 tablespoon agave syrup or maple syrup, honey for non-vegan version
- Juice of ¼ lime juice
To serve
- 3 scallions/green onions green parts diced
- A handful of cilantro/coriander leaves only
- Juice of ½ lime juice
Instructions
- Make the noodles. We suggest to do this step first. Bring a pot of water to a boil and add the noodles. Cook in boiling water, stirring a few times, for 9-10 minutes, and then strain under cold water (or as per instructions on the packet). Set aside in a sieve.
- Make the broth. Add all broth ingredients to the inner pot. Place and lock the lid, making sure the pressure valve is set to Sealing. Set to Manual, HIGH pressure and set to the timer to 0 minutes. That is correct! Zero minutes is all we need to make the broth. The Instant Pot will build the pressure first and this process will start to cook our ingredients. Once the timer goes off, use the quick release to let off the pressure, and then open the lid.
- Pan-fry the tempeh. While the broth is cooking, prepare the tempeh slices and preheat the oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Add the tempeh slices and fry for 2-3 minutes on each side, or until crispy. Whisk together the soy sauce, sweet syrup of choice and lime juice and drizzle over the cooked tempeh slices evenly. Set aside.
- Finish the soup. Divide the noodles between two bowls and scoop out the mushrooms and the broccoli over the top, then ladle the reset of the broth in the bowls. Garnish with diced scallions, cilantro, and a little drizzle of lime juice. Serve the crispy tempeh on the side.
Nutrition
SAVE THIS VEGAN UDON SOUP TO PINTEREST
Laney
Great recipe, however, honey is not vegan. Agave is a good substitute. Either way, I loved this soup. Making it again tonight!
instantpoteats
You can substitute it with maple syrup or agave, we'll make a note in the ingredients!
Karen Gee
How would you modify this to use chicken not sure tempeh will fly with the kids. Could you then cook the chicken with the broth?
instantpoteats
Yes, you could cook the chicken with the broth, or just add in some shredded chicken that you previously cooked.
Sue
Shouldn't there be some other liquid in the broth besides the 2T of soy sauce?
instantpoteats
Hey Sue,
Well spotted! Our error in typing up the recipe. There should 4 cups of good quality vegetable stock. It's been added to ingredients.
Thanks for letting us know!