Japanese Tsuyu
Soy sauce and Dashi combined for a deep umami flavour
Tsuyu, or Mentsuyu is a concentrated, multipurpose Japanese soup base. When diluted, the robust base can be used as a dipping sauce for fried items, like tempura and cold noodle dishes like somen noodles or with cold soba noodles, or as the foundation for hot noodle soups like ramen or udon noodles.
Like dashi stock, Tsuyu uses kombu (kelp) and katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes) to impart deep umami flavors.
One of the benefits of making using Tsuyu at home is that you can control the base’s flavor intensity, which varies based on the dish. When choosing a dilution ratio, a general starting point is three parts water to 1 part Tsuyu.
Concentrated Tsuyu sauce can also be used as a stand-in for standard soy sauce when seasoning stews, hot pot dishes (nabemono), and dipping sauce.
When using Tsuyu as a dipping sauce for dishes like zaru soba, you can provide additional ingredients and seasonings to mix into the dish, such as sliced scallions, wasabi, grated ginger.
You can store Tsuyu noodle sauce in the refrigerator in a sealed container for up to a month.
