Cheesy vegan udon noodles with Brussels sprouts

Cheesy vegan udon noodles with browned Brussels sprouts in bowl.

5 from 4 votes

Cheesy vegan udon noodles with Brussels sprouts

Nothing says comfort quite like a bowl of cheesy noodles. This take on it has a bit of an Asian spin with miso, tamari, sriracha, and udon noodles. Because frozen udon noodles are already cooked, they only take 1 minute to warm. Topped with cashew cheese sauce and Brussels sprouts, a satisfying lunch or dinner can be yours in just 25 minutes!

Makes 2 generous servings.

Prep Time10

Cook Time15

Total Time25

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Asian, Vegan

Keyword: bowl, dairy free

Servings: people

Calories: 343kcal

Author: Cadry Nelson

Ingredients

2 (250 gram pouches) frozen udon noodles
2 teaspoons avocado oil or other neutral flavored oil, divided
½ cup chopped onions
2 cloves garlic minced
2 cups thinly sliced Brussels sprouts
Pinch of salt
½ cup water + more or boiling udon noodles
2 teaspoons white miso paste
¼ cup raw cashew pieces**
¼ cup + 1 Tablespoon nutritional yeast flakes
1 teaspoon tamari
½ teaspoon sriracha + more for drizzling on top
Chili crisp optional garnish

Instructions

Fill a medium-sized soup pot with water and bring to a boil. Add frozen udon noodles and cook for a minute, stopping to stir the noodles to break them up. (Or follow package instructions.) Drain and set aside.
Bring a large non-stick skillet to a medium heat with 1 teaspoon oil. Saute onions & garlic a few minutes, until translucent & fragrant. Once fully cooked, put the onions & garlic into your high-speed blender, and set aside.
Now add the remaining 1 teaspoon oil to the large non-stick skillet. Evenly spread the sliced Brussels sprouts across the skillet, along with a pinch of salt. Cook at a medium heat, allowing the Brussels sprouts to get nice & dark on one side before flipping. (If you move the sprouts too often, they won't brown as nicely.)
Cook for about 10 minutes, until the Brussels are brown and cooked through.
Now it's time to add the remaining ingredients into the blender. Into the blender, add ½ cup water, white miso paste, raw cashew pieces, nutritional yeast flakes, tamari, and ½ teaspoon sriracha. Blend until completely smooth. Stop and scrape down the sides, if necessary.
(If you don't have a high-speed blender, you will need to do some workarounds to get the raw cashews totally creamy. See the notes for suggestions.)
Bring a medium-sized soup pot to a medium heat. (If you like, reuse the soup pot from earlier that you used to boil the noodles.)
Pour the blender ingredients into the pot. Cook for a few minutes, so that the sauce can heat & thicken. Stir constantly, so that it heats evenly and doesn't burn on the bottom. If it starts to splatter or get too hot, lower the heat. The sauce is ready when it's thick like gravy.
Turn off the heat on the pot, and add the drained udon noodles to the sauce. Stir to combine. Taste for salt and add a pinch more if necessary.
Evenly divide the noodles between two bowls. Top each with half of the Brussels sprouts and a drizzling of sriracha.

Notes

Noodle substitutions

If you don't have frozen udon noodles, use another sturdy pasta that holds sauce well. My favorites are chiocciole or gobbetti. You'll need 3 cups of cooked pasta total for this recipe. (1 ½ cups, per person.)

To yield 3 cups of cooked pasta, you'll roughly need 1 ½ cups dried pasta.

I do not recommend using dried udon noodles for this recipe. Dried, shelf-stable udon noodles are too thin & light to hold up to a heavy sauce.

Standard blender instructions

If you have a high speed blender, you don't need to soak the raw cashews ahead of time. However, if you're using a standard blender, it will need some help making a perfectly smooth, creamy sauce.

You have 4 options:

Grind the dry raw cashews in a coffee grinder until they have the consistency of flour. Then add the ground cashews to the blender with the other cashew cheese sauce ingredients.
Put raw cashews in a bowl, cover them in water, and allow them to soak for a few hours to soften them. Then drain the cashews and add them to the blender with the other ingredients.
Boil the raw cashews in water for 15 minutes. Then drain & add to the blender.
Microwave raw cashews in water for 2 minutes. Then drain & add to the blender.

Nutrition