Taiwanese Beef Noodle soup is one of my absolute favourite dishes to eat. The soup is always so hearty and I love the pickled mustard that goes along with it.
Now I’ve always assumed that this noodle soup is super complicated and takes a long time to make (HOW many ingredients do I need to make the soup and simmer for HOW LONG?!), but a chance encounter with a recipe on Tiny Urban Kitchen quickly changed my mind! Her recipe uses minimal ingredients…and can be made in my Instant Pot!!
Many other recipes online asks for light and dark soy sauce, plus a multitude of other sauces, and I was NOT interested in stocking up on extra bottles. But Tiny Urban Kitchen’s recipe is easy and uses a lot of ingredients I already have at home! The only extra bottle I needed to get was 辣豆瓣酱 spicy doubanjiang (Spicy bean sauce). The T&T Supermarkets I went to did not have any of the spicy bean sauce that’s made in Taiwan, only from China, so I ventured into Kuo Wah in Richmond, which sells Taiwanese groceries, to get some.
I thought this easy recipe would be a great start and if we didn’t love it, then I can try the recipes with more ingredients!
Well I’ll be damned but WE LOVED IT! This recipe will for sure be a keeper and I hope you will enjoy it too! As with most noodle soups, we find this tastes much better the next day, so we usually will make it for eating the next day.
The recipe below is mostly verbatim but I’ve adapted it. I basically followed it too a T, except I added a whole onion and some random spices to the soup base.
Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup (adapted from Tiny Urban Kitchen)
Serves 4
Ingredients:
-
2-3 lbs beef shank cut up into chunks. Bone-in shank also works, then you don’t have to cut it up as it’ll just fall off the bone
-
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
-
5-8 cloves of garlic, sliced
-
1-2 inch chunk of ginger, sliced
-
5 star anise
-
5-6 cloves
-
1 tsp coriander seeds
-
1 tsp cumin seeds
-
1 tsp fennel seeds
-
1 tsp black peppercorn
-
1 stick cinnamon
-
3 bay leaves
-
1 tsp Chinese Five Spice powder
-
2 scallion stalks, chopped
-
1 onion, quartered
-
1 tomato, quartered or 8 cherry tomatoes halved
-
2 thai chilis
-
2-3 T chili bean sauce (or broad bean paste with chili / 辣豆瓣酱)
-
1/2 cup soy sauce
-
1/4 cup rice wine
-
1 tsp to 1/4 cup rock sugar
-
Enough water to cover the beef
Optional vegetables
- blanched bok choy
- fresh cilantro as garnish
- sour mustard greens
Preparation:
1. In a separate pan, toast your spices until fragrant. Place in a bouquet baggie and tie up for use later.
2. Turn Instant Pot at “Saute” and brown your meat. Saute the onion until translucent. Add the green onion, ginger, garlic until fragrant.
3. Add the chili bean paste and tomato, saute till tender.
4. Add the soy sauce, rice wine, thai chilis, and rock sugar. Add enough water to cover everything.
5. Add Five Spice powder, bay leaves, and spice packet from Step 1.
6. Set Instant Pot to Pressure Cook at high pressure for 1 hour 40 mins. When time is done, slowly release pressure (or wait for natural release). You can serve this now or wait until the next day like we do!
7. When ready to serve, blanch bok choy while cooking the noodles in the same pot.
8. Garnish with lots of cilantro and sour mustard greens.
To prep sour mustard greens:
You can buy this for under $2CAD at Asian grocery stores.
1. Cut open packet and drain.
2. Heat a bit of oil in a pan. Add 2 tsp minced garlic.
3. Add drained mustard greens and saute until dry. Add 3 tbsp sugar. Taste Taste Taste! We’re aiming for a balance between sweet and sour.
We really love this recipe and hope you enjoy it too!
Related Posts:
