Houtou Pumpkin Miso Noodles

Quick answer

Total time: 85 min
Level: Medium
Servings: 5 servings
Ingredients: 13

About this dish

Houtou is a representative Yamanashi noodle dish.

A salt-free dough of wheat flour and lukewarm water is rolled thin, cut into wide strips about 1cm across, and simmered directly in dried-sardine dashi and miso with potato, pumpkin, daikon, carrot, napa cabbage, and shiitake. Because the floured noodles are not boiled separately, their starch thickens the broth and helps it retain heat. Houtou has long served as a staple in mountainous areas poorly suited to rice cultivation, and making the noodles was once treated as an important household skill. It is eaten throughout the year but appears more often in winter as a filling, warming meal.

Ingredients (5 servings)

Ingredient	Amount	Unit
wheat flour	400	g
lukewarm water	175	ml
potato	100	g
kabocha squash	75	g
daikon radish	60	g
carrot	25	g
napa cabbage	100	g
shiitake mushrooms	5	piece
long green onion	35	g
fried tofu pouch	25	g
dried sardines for dashi	75	g
water for broth	2500	ml
miso	190	g

Instructions

Read the steps as a cooking flow: prep, heat, seasoning, doneness control, and finish.

6 steps

1

Control

Combine 75g dried sardines and 2500ml broth water in a pot and bring to a boil over medium heat.

Lower the heat and simmer for 10 minutes, then remove the sardines to leave a clear dashi.
2

Finish

Put 380g of the 400g wheat flour in a bowl and add 175ml lukewarm water gradually while kneading for 8 minutes.

When the dough is one mass slightly firmer than an earlobe, cover with a damp cloth and rest at room temperature for 30 minutes. Reserve the remaining 20g flour for dusting.
3

Prep

Cut 100g potato and 75g kabocha into irregular bite-size pieces.

Cut 60g daikon and 25g carrot into 5mm quarter rounds, 100g napa cabbage into 4cm widths, 5 shiitake into thick strips, 25g fried tofu into short strips, and 35g green onion thinly on the diagonal.
4

Control

Add the potato, kabocha, daikon, and carrot to the dashi and simmer over medium heat for 10 minutes.

When the potato edges begin to soften, add the napa cabbage and shiitake and cook for 5 more minutes.
5

Finish

Dust the rested dough with the reserved 20g flour and roll it to 3mm thick.

Cut into long strips about 1cm wide, broader than udon, and spread them out with the dusting flour still attached so they do not stick.
6

Control

Stir the fried tofu and 95g miso into the broth, add the houtou noodles one strip at a time, and simmer over medium heat for 8 to 10 minutes. When the edges are translucent and no raw flour taste remains in the center, dissolve in the remaining 95g miso. As boiling resumes, add the green onion, turn off the heat, cover, and rest for 3 minutes.

Practical Cooking Checks

The cues that matter most while cooking.

Key technique: Salt-free dough cut into 1cm wide noodles
Finish cue: When the edges are translucent and no raw flour taste remains in the center, dissolve in the remaining 95g miso.
Avoid this: Houtou dough contains no salt, so do not pre-boil or rinse it; the attached flour must enter the broth to create its characteristic thickness.