Microwaved Udon Noodles and Bok Choy Bowl with Sweet Spicy Sauce

I am sharing with you how easy and fast it is to prepare an irresistible noodle bowl in the microwave using a packet of udon and a vegetable of choice, which in this case is bok choy.  I actually microwaved the two separately but you can do them together since they have the same cooking time.  I wanted to be sure that my vegetable, bok choy, was not overcooked so I would stop and test their doneness, thus I preferred to cook it separately.

I have introduced udon noodles in this blog in a past blogpost on the Udon Shiitake Mushroom Soup recipe. In this past recipe, I used frozen udon noodles which came in separate small individual bundles of four.  The only thing I find inconvenient in using them was I had to freeze them and my freezer was always full.  When I saw udon noodles in 7.2 oz packets similar to the looks of Ramen noodles at the Asian store, I bought several with different flavor packets like, oriental, chicken, beef and shrimp.  In this recipe, I just used the noodles and saved the flavor or soup base for later use.  I was particularly concerned with the presence of monosodium glutamate as one of the ingredients in the flavor or soup base. 

You do not need these flavor packets in this recipe since you will be using a sweet spicy sauce with a Korean flavor that is very addictive.  For the sauce, I used the one I adapted from the recipe for this dish, Soba Noodles with Spicy Sweet Gochujang Sauce, I published previously in this blog.  I used less Gochujang sauce for the sauce for this recipe and substituted ketchup and sriracha for some of the amounts of Gochujang I used in the past recipe.  If you are wondering which of the two noodles, udon or soba, I prefer, I would say udon would be my choice.  It is not as slippery to eat as the soba noodles. But both are good.

This noodle dish is very addictive.  It is very versatile.  You can use any vegetables you want and also if you like add some meat or seafood. 

Microwaved Udon Noodles and Bok Choy Bowl with Sweet Spicy Sauce

1 generous serving

• 1-7.2 oz package udon noodles (from Asian store)
• 1 bok choy or other vegetables of your choice
• sesame seeds (optional)
• 1 recipe Sweet and Spicy Sauce (recipe below)

Place the udon noodles in a bowl.  Add about 1 cup water or enough to cover the noodles.  Microwave for 3 minutes. I used a 1100 watt oven.

Cut the bok choy in half and place in a bowl with 4 tbsp water and microwave for three minutes. 

Sweet and Spicy Sauce 

• 1/2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp rice vinegar
• 1 tbsp ketchup
• 1/4 tsp sriracha 
• 1 tsp Gochujang sauce
• 1 tsp dry garlic flakes
• 1/2 tsp ginger powder
• 1/4 tsp sesame oil

Mix all the sauce ingredients with a fork.  

Assembly

Place the drained udon noodles and bok choy in a bowl.  Add the sauce to the noodles and  mix.  Sprinkle sesame seeds if you like.