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Mentsuyu (noodle sauce) is a very versatile sauce that gives many dishes a great Japanese flavor. This is perfect for dipping cold Soba or Somen noodles, tempura and more. It is so easy to make and keeps well in the refrigerator (at least a couple weeks, stays for a month in my fridge), and comes in handy in a crunch time for dinner. I actually make a lot of it at once so that I don’t have to make it frequently (oh, lazy me). You can cook meat and vegetables with this sauce as seasoning, like a quick teriyaki sauce, or just drizzle over steamed vegetables or tofu.
You could buy noodle sauce or tempura sauce in a bottle at many supermarkets in the US, but this is easy enough to make at home and has no MSG or other chemicals in it.
This is a condensed form of sauce, so dilute with water before using. One part this sauce and two parts water is good as dipping sauce, but adjust to whatever strength you like.
Print Recipe
5 from 3 votes
Multipurpose sauce (for noodles and tempura)
Multi-purpose savory sauce used for dipping sauce and seasoning meat and vegetables
Prep Time5 minutes mins
Cook Time15 minutes mins
Total Time20 minutes mins
Course: Side Dish
Cuisine: Japanese
Keyword: sauce
Servings: 1 cup
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Ingredients
- 1/2 cup Soy Sauce
- 1/2 cup Mirin
- 1/4 cup Sake Japanese rice wine
- handful of Dried Bonito Flakes
US Customary – Metric
Instructions
Put all the ingredients in a pot.
Let it boil and remove from heat. Cool completely in the pot.
Strain bonito flakes.
Video
dipping saucenoodlessomentsuyu
August 13, 2012 By JapaneseCooking101
About JapaneseCooking101
Noriko and Yuko, the authors of this site, are both from Japan but now live in California. They love cooking and eating great food, and share a similar passion for home cooking using fresh ingredients.Noriko and Yuko plan and develop recipes together for Japanese Cooking 101. They cook and shoot photos/videos at their home kitchen(s.)
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Lisa
August 17, 2012 at 10:03 am
How long do you boil it? 20 minutes?
Yuko
August 17, 2012 at 9:40 pm
Hi Lisa, you don’t need to boil for long at all. In fact, as soon as it reaches to a boiling point, you can turn off the heat, cover, and let it sit until it cools off. You don’t even need to stir.
lisa
November 4, 2013 at 4:17 am
Hello Yuko,
i’m a muslim,so i can’t put mirin or sake in my cooking as it contain alcohol. Could you tell me, what can i subtitute both mirin and sake with?
It will be so great if you could tell me.
Thank you Yuko (⌒‐⌒)
Noriko
November 4, 2013 at 10:06 pm
Lisa,
it is hard to substitute Mirin and Sake… but if you can’t use them, just omit them. You may add some sugar to compensate the sweetness of Mirin.Moruno
April 22, 2014 at 5:02 am
Lisa, you can boil it some more until you no longer can smell alcohol. Allah surely won’t mind if it won’t have any alcohol anymore, but if alcohol was just used in the process of cooking.
Meghan
August 11, 2016 at 12:06 pm
I once heard that you can substitute sugar for murin. But I don’t know how much. Google should be able to tell you
Emily
August 22, 2016 at 11:55 am
Hello! I was just looking in the store and saw alcohol free mirin
Morice
January 18, 2014 at 1:14 pm
Can I leave out the sake?
Noriko
February 1, 2014 at 11:50 am
Morice,
you could, but doesn’t taste the same.
Frank
February 6, 2014 at 10:45 pm
I am eating vegetarian, what is the substitute for bonito flakes? thank you
Noriko
February 10, 2014 at 8:58 am
Frank,
Use Kombu dried kelp, and you’re good.Moruno
April 22, 2014 at 5:18 am
Nota Bene: Konbu without soy or any other proteins will pose danger to the stomach, which will literally start to digest itself. Use konbu with caution.
Alan
March 2, 2016 at 2:59 pm
Hi Frank,
I’m vegetarian too. I found granulated shiitake mushroom broth at my Asian store. I used about 1/2 tsp and the sauce came out great! The shiitake has a deep umami flavour that is almost smoky. Great substitute for bonito flakes, I highly recommend it.
Natalie
February 24, 2014 at 5:32 am
Hey, I really love the Japanese food, but unfortunately I don’t always have time to make all the recipes. Are there some recipes or dishes on your site I can use to freeze them in and take out when I want to eat?
Noriko
February 24, 2014 at 5:03 pm
Natalie,
Beef or Pork Shigureni is a great make-ahead dish.
Jodibabe
May 6, 2014 at 4:05 pm
I’ve made this twice since last week!! It’s delicious w soba or drizzled on steak w green onions! Tonight I’m going to cook scallops w it ^___^
Noriko
May 6, 2014 at 9:09 pm
Jodibabe,
glad you liked it!
Stephanie Kho
July 8, 2014 at 3:24 am
In all the recipes, when it says soy sauce does it refer to Kikoman or light soy sauce?
Noriko
September 13, 2014 at 9:54 pm
Stephanie,
we use regular (not light) soy sauce.
Scott
August 19, 2014 at 9:11 pm
How long will this sauce stay good in the refrigerator? Thanks!
Noriko
September 8, 2014 at 10:07 pm
Scott,
two weeks or so.
lalita
September 16, 2014 at 10:02 am
Is Bonito a kosher fish?
jules rosen
January 31, 2016 at 6:36 am
Yes it is. Fins etc. Make it so
nui
September 28, 2014 at 11:51 am
Thanks for the great site! Just made the sauce as I couldn’t remember the recipe. It was just what I wanted.
Noriko
September 29, 2014 at 8:06 am
nui,
glad you liked our Mentsuyu recipe!
HweeLi
January 12, 2016 at 8:28 pm
Can I substitute chinese cooking wine (hua tiao wine) for sake?
Yuko
January 17, 2016 at 7:33 pm
We have not used hua tiao wine before for this recipe, but it may come out OK.
Steve
January 25, 2016 at 7:10 pm
Hi, I recently bought some organic soba noodles and I wanted to use a traditional dipping sauce. When I googled it, I came across your recipe and checked it out. I just made my first batch of Mentsuyu and I can’t wait to try it out.
Although I am going to use it as a cold dipping sauce, I also read somewhere that it can be used as a hot soup base, maybe for Udon noodles.
My question is, how can I use it hot and for what noodles would it be good with?
Arigatou
Grge
April 3, 2016 at 9:38 am
May I use fish sauce instead of Bonito flakes ?
Noriko
April 5, 2016 at 11:16 pm
Grge,
sorry, but no fish sauce. That has a very different flavor.
Walter Bryan
April 4, 2016 at 10:39 am
I just order some yakisoba disk from a Japanese restaurant yesterday and the sauce was amazing. I was wondering what type of sauce it was. I open a future cookie from someone elses order and it said that I receive good news in the mail. 😊 when I turned on my computer today there was this Web site showing me how to make my own Mentsuyu sauce. 😄☺😊😀😁. The universe it an amazing and wonderful place. Thanks to Ms. Noriko
H
September 23, 2016 at 5:39 am
Hi ,
I’m a vegetarian . So , I can substitute Wakame seaweed for bonito flakes .
I Would use kombu but it is not found and I try online but its not .
