Creamy Tom Yum Udon

About This Recipe

This Creamy Tom Yum Udon Noodles recipe was inspired by a dish I tried at a modern Thai food restaurant during a trip to Bangkok. While the spicy and sour tom yum and creamy coconut milk flavors were delicious with the noodles, the sauce was rather soupy. I felt a thicker sauce coating the slippery al-dente udon noodles would work better.

Once I got back home, I recreated the dish and perfected it after a few tries. Today, I’m excited to be sharing it with you! 

These Creamy Tom Yum Udon Noodles are a quick and easy weeknight Thai-inspired noodles dish made with seared juicy jumbo shrimp, veggies like mushrooms, sweet cherry tomatoes and baby corn, bouncy and chewy udon noodles in a delectable creamy sauce that’s full of all the spicy, hot and sour flavors that you love in Thai tom yum soup. 

The sauce is made with a blend of cooking cream and coconut milk. As a result, it’s thick, rich and creamy and full of coconut milk flavors! Finish off your plate with a sprinkling of fresh cilantro for a delightful and comforting meal!

This dish is ready in 25 minutes and Thai and Japanese fusion food at its best! 

If you love tom yum flavors, try my Tom Yum Noodle Soup, Tom Yum Fried Rice, or this Creamy Tom Yum Pasta next!

Ingredient Notes and Substitutes

• Shrimp (or Prawns): Use pre-peeled and deveined shrimp/prawns for convenience so that you only have to thaw and rinse them.
• Salt and Pepper: To season the shrimp.
• Aromatics: Asian red shallots, fresh garlic and Thai Bird’s Eye red chilies. Substitute regular shallots/eschalots or red onion. If Thai chilies are not easily available to you, use any hot red chili variety. 
• Veggies: I used fresh shiitake mushrooms, baby corn and cherry tomatoes. Besides shiitake, oyster, enoki, straw mushrooms, or any brown mushrooms taste great in tom yum soup and would work well here too.
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil: Or use olive oil, vegetable oil or your preferred oil for cooking.
• Makrut Lime Leaves: Also known as kaffir lime leaves, this fragrant Thai herb has a citrusy aroma and adds a sweet lime-like scent and flavor to Thai food. Find it in a Thai grocery store or substitute with the ground dried version or dried makrut lime leaves. They both can be found in most well-stocked mainstream supermarkets
• Cooking Cream: I used a cream with 20% fat – Emborg cooking cream. You can substitute with table cream or light cream if you’re in the USA or single cream if you are in the UK.
• Coconut Milk: Use full-fat for the best creamy texture and coconut milk flavors.
• Thai Tom Yum Paste: I used a store-bought instant tom yum paste for convenience instead of using several fresh Thai aromatics. My favorite brand is Por Kwan which is hotter and not as sweet as other instant tom yum paste brands. However, any brand will work and you can tailor the sweetness and spice levels by adding more or less sugar and Thai chili powder.
• Light Brown Sugar: Balances out the heat and savory flavors. Or use coconut sugar, a brown sugar replacement, or other sweetener of choice. 
• Fish Sauce: Substitute with soy sauce in a pinch.
• Thai Chili Powder (optional): Thai chili powder is made of chili flakes, seeds, and chili powder. Substitute with crushed red pepper chili flakes or omit for a milder dish.
• Udon Noodles: I used frozen sanuki udon noodles for this recipe. They can be found in the frozen section of Japanese and Asian supermarkets and also some mainstream supermarkets. While firm, the texture is smoother and more tender than other varieties. Vacuum sealed packs of pre-cooked fresh udon noodles can also be used. In a pinch, dried udon noodles will work too but note they won’t be as chewy or bouncy as frozen or fresh udon noodles.
• Lime Juice: Freshly squeezed for the best tangy flavors!
• Fresh Cilantro (coriander): Chopped and stirred in at the end and also used for garnish.

Full ingredient list and amounts are in the recipe card below.

How to Make Creamy Tom Yum Udon Noodles

Below is a step-by-step overview on how to make this recipe. Keep scrolling down to get to the recipe card below with the full recipe and detailed instructions!

Serving Suggestions

This tom yum udon dish is filling on its own but if you’d like to serve it as a part of a larger meal, enjoy it with Thai appetizers like these Easy Spicy Thai Shrimp Cakes, Spicy Thai Basil Wontons, or this Thai Sweet Basil Roasted Tomato Salsa with tortilla chips.

Storing and Reheating Leftovers

• Storing: While these noodles taste best right after cooking, you can store leftovers in a sealed airtight container in the fridge for 3-4 days.

• Reheating: Reheat on high in the microwave for 1-2 minutes, stirring halfway through, until hot throughout. 

Variations

Dietary Modifications

• Gluten-free. Try using rice noodles or soba noodles that are made from 100% buckwheat. Make sure that the tom yum paste and fish sauce you are using doesn’t contain any hidden gluten ingredients. 
• Vegetarian. Instead of shrimp, use crispy pan-fried tofu or fried tofu puffs. You can either toss them through the noodles or serve them on top. Use soy sauce instead of fish sauce and a vegan tom yum paste without any shrimp or fish products listed in the ingredients list.
• Vegan. Same as for making it vegetarian but also use a vegan cream.

Preference/Flavor Customization

• Use other seafood. In addition to shrimp, calamari (squid rings), clams, mussels, fish such as halibut, cod, or sole would also taste delicious in the creamy tom yum sauce. 
• Use pasta. Linguini, fettuccine, pappardelle or other thick noodle type pasta would work if you don’t have udon on hand. In fact, I have a Creamy Tom Yum Pasta recipe on the blog with mixed seafood. It is sublime.
• Other noodle options. A creamy tom yum ramen dish would taste fantastic! Use 2-3 dried ramen noodle bricks or 2 x 160-gram vacuum sealed packs. Cook in a pot of boiling water before adding to the sauce. Shanghai noodles, like the ones I used in my Shanghai Style Noodles Stir-fry, are wheat-based noodles that are similar to udon and would also work in this recipe
• Add other veggies. Sautéed sliced asparagus, Roma tomatoes, green beans, sweet corn kernels, green peas, carrots, broccoli florets, etc. A cup of frozen mixed veggies or stir-fry veggies can be sautéed after cooking the aromatics, just before building the cream sauce.
• Use heavy cream (double cream) or coconut cream. For a thicker and richer sauce, use heavy cream instead of light/cooking cream and coconut cream instead of coconut milk.
• Leave out the cream. Use all coconut milk. 
• Leave out the coconut milk. The sauce won’t have coconut milk flavors but will be creamy and thick from the cooking cream.
• Use evaporated milk. It’s traditionally used in creamy tom yum soup and I also used it in my Tom Yum Noodle Soup. Use it instead of the coconut milk for a lightly creamy texture without the coconut milk flavor.

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