Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup (Niu Rou Mian)

My philosophy in life is always – less is more. After moving into my own home recently, I made it a point to live with less. With this in mind, here is my taiwanese beef noodle soup recipe, which only requires 1 (ordinary) pot and basically pantry ingredients! 

Truly, this taiwanese beef noodle soup recipe is exactly ‘less is more’. Although it might seem complicated at first, in reality it is just slow cooked beef in a pot of water with simple ingredients! There is no need for an expensive pot (pressure cooker, instant pots etc) or to specially buy additional spices (though of course this would elevate the soup). Yet, all these ingredients are sufficient enough to create this rich, slightly spicy and hearty beef soup, topped with noodles and it’s comfort food. 

But before you begin, PLEASE ensure you get the correct star ingredients! 

• Beef shank – please take reference from my photo below/google if you do not know what beef shank looks like! This cut of beef is characteristic of taiwanese beef soup, which has a lot of tendons across the meat, is the perfect type of cut for stews.
• Dou ban jiang – there is NO substitute for this bean paste. Please make your way to the supermarket to get a tub. If possible, purchase one with origins from China/Taiwan, as these tend to be more flavourful and have a richer orangey red color. This is the brand I used in my recipe.

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Recipe

Servings: 3-4 pax

Time: minimally 2.5h 

Ingredients for soup base 

• 500g of beef shank 
• 2 onions (preferably white onions, sliced)
• 3 slices of ginger 
• 2 tomatoes
• 1 apple (core removed) 
• 1 carrot (peeled) 
• 1 garlic bulb (top of bulb sliced off) 
• 1.2L of water 
• 2 tbsp of Dou Ban Jiang (Chinese spicy broad bean paste) 
• 2 tbsp of Soy sauce
• 25g of rock sugar (optional, can substitute with white sugar)
• 1 tsp of salt (optional, if you prefer a saltier flavour)

Steps:

1. In a pot of boiling water, add your whole beef shank and let it boil for 1 min. Remove the beef and rinse it with water to remove any impurities. 
2. In a large pot, over medium heat, add cooking oil and fry ginger, onions and carrots for a minute, until onions become translucent.
3. Add the dou ban jiang and continue frying. Deglaze the pot with some water, to get the sticky sauce bits off the pot. 
4. Add your beef into this pot, remaining ingredients, soya sauce, rock sugar and water. 
5. Let the soup come up to a boil, then cover the pot with a lid and let it cook for 2 hours on low heat.
6. The soup should look rich and beef soft and tender after 2 hours of cooking. 

Ingredients to serve

• Noodles of your choice (Preferably thin wheat noodles) 
• Vegetables (Preferably Bak choy)
• 1 tsp of Chinese black vinegar
• 1 tsp of Soy sauce 

Steps:

1. To serve, add black vinegar and soya sauce to a bowl.
2. Add your cooked noodles to the bowl, pour over a generous serving of soup, and add your sliced beef. 
3. Garnish with vegetables of choice and chili oil. Voila!

Video steps here

@bakereeve

A bowl of warm hearty soup and tender beef. Full recipe up on IG! #beefnoodlesoup #taiwan #taiwanbeefnoodles #soup #comfortfood

♬ original sound – Bakereeve – Bakereeve