Pepperoni Udon Soup with Spinach and Beans
These homemade udon noodles are in a soup with a pepperoni flavored broth! The combo of a sausage, bean, green, and noodle floating in a flavorful soup is the most comforting thing I can eat in the winter.
I had a bunch of leftover dumpling dough from when I made the baby yoda “Gyoda” a few weeks ago, and decided to make it into multi-colored udon noodles. This time of the year my fave soup is when I throw a type of pasta, bean, green, and sausage into a pot. I decided to do a spin on this for the udon noodles with some spinach (since it was in the dough) cannellini beans, and pepperoni. This was a super comforting bowl of soup that I ate leftovers of all week!
Make the udon noodles
I grabbed my white and green leftover dough from the fridge. Put the two doughs together and just start rolling it out to end up with the random tie-dye look. The color of the udon is a great contrast from the pepperoni red of the soup broth.
If you want to make homemade udon noodles, this is a great guide!
Slice the spinach udon noodles
Cutting them with a knife gives you a nice square shaped udon noodle. The hand cut udon tastes so good in the pepperoni soup broth!
Pasta making is like therapy for me. Look how nice these look.
Making the pepperoni soup broth
It was very easy to make the broth. Start with a flavorful soup broth and then add pepperoni! The broth can be store bought or homemade. I simmered the pepperoni in the broth for about a half hour to let the flavors really get into the soup. Then I added the spinach and beans and cooked it a little more.
Building the pepperoni udon soup bowls
Boil the noodles and spread them equally into the bowls. Then top them with the broth. Make sure you get lots of pepperoni, beans, and spinach in there.
This pepperoni udon soup is so tasty and so comforting!
Twists on this dish
The way I was first acquainted with the combination of a bean, sausage, green, and noodle is from my grandmothers take on pasta fagioli. There is a famous take on this style of soup called Roberto, but it does not have any pasta in it.
For more great soups, check out my meatball parm soup with garlic knots, this chorizo and squash soup, or this fennel and carrot soup with chicken and kale.
Pepperoni Udon Soup with Spinach and Beans
Equipment
Ingredients
- 4 cups flour plus more
- 1 cup water
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups spinach
- cornstarch
- 1/2 gallon stock chicken, veggie, or whatever you have
- 4 oz pepperoni diced
- 2 cups spinach
- 1 can cannellini beans
- chili flakes
Instructions
- Split the water, flour, and salt in half to make the 2 different colored batches of wrappers.
- Heat the first half of the water to simmering, add half the salt, and pour it into a bowl with half the flour. Stir to combine and then knead about 10 minutes until smooth. Wrap with plastic wrap and allow to cool on the counter until ready to use, at least an hour.
- Add the spinach to the remaining water and heat to a simmer until the spinach is wilted. Add the remaining salt. Blend in a blender or with a hand blender until smooth. Add this mixture to the flour and stir to combine, then start kneading. Add more flour until the texture of this dough matches the previous dough you made, maybe about an additional 1/4 cup. Knead 10 minutes until smooth. Wrap with plastic wrap and allow to cool on the counter until ready to use, at least an hour.
- Put the two doughs next to each other and roll them out. Fold the dough on top of itself once or twice as you roll. This will give the dough almost a tie-dye green and white look. Use cornstarch to help prevent sticking and roll the dough out to about 1/8th of an inch. Cut into noodles and toss in more starch.
- Bring the stock to a simmer and add the pepperoni. Simmer for 30 minutes. Add in the spinach and beans and cook another 15 minutes. Add chili flake to taste
- Bring a pot of water to a boil and boil the noodles. Strain and add to bowls.
- Top with the broth and serve!