Taiwanese beef noodle soup is made with Red Braised Beef! You make the beef and you can eat it with rice and veggies. Then for the second meal, cook some noodles and add veggies in the soup which makes Taiwanese Style Beef Noodle Soup 台式紅燒牛肉麵!

Breakdown of Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup

Just breaking it down by what I mean – we’re going to make it in two parts! The first part is the Beef – and the beef by itself is called Red Braised beef. It’s known as “Red Braised” because it is technically called hong shao niu rou, which means “Red Cooked”.

Then you make the noodles and other veggies such as Bok Choy, and my preference is also a poached egg, in order to make it Beef Noodle Soup!

By the way you can also make Beef noodle soup with another type of broth (not red braised) – this Clear broth braised beef is cooked with ginger, green onions, dried red peppers, Sichuan peppercorn, and star anise. The flavor is delicious!

Red Braised Beef

Red Braised Beef (or aka Red Cooked Beef) is made by simmering beef with soy sauce, star anise, chili bean paste, red chilies and more. You can serve it by itself as it is a stew, or you can make Beef Noodle Soup with it!

Customizations

This beef stew is very customizable! Here are some ways to switch it up:

Spice it up

You can add more chili bean paste, dried red chili peppers, or chili oil to kick it up a notch! Or why not all of the above if you like it real spicy!

Switch up the veggies

In my opinion, tomatoes is the a must as it adds flavor to the dish. However, you can also add other veggies such as carrots, daikon radish, onions. Just add it before you start simmering at low heat.

What to add in Beef Noodle Soup

If you’re looking for ideas on what to add to your beef noodle soup, here are some things I’ve done/eaten before:

Vegetables:

• Bok Choy
• Yu Choy
• Lettuce
• Cabbage
• Tomatoes
• Watercress
• Yu Choy
• Gai lan
• Scallions/green onions
• Cilantro

BTW if you're looking to learn more about Chinese vegetables check out my post on Different Types of Chinese Vegetables here!

Others:

• Eggs (pan fried or poached or hard/soft boiled)
• Suan cai (pickled mustard greens)
• Zha cai (pickled mustard greens tuber)
• Hot chili oil
• Chinese meatballs (beef, pork, squid)
• Daikon radish

If you like to add anything specific I haven’t listed, let me know in the comment section!!

Type of Noodles

There are actually many different types of Asian noodles. For this recipe we use wheat noodles. This is your most basic noodles made with wheat, and it’s the most common of Asian noodles. Wheat noodles can also have different shapes and sizes.

I usually already have DragonMall Wu-Mu – Dry Noodle at my house because I also use it for noodle soups, so this is what I’m cooking with today.

You could also use egg noodles if you'd like, as it is similar. However, if you use glass noodles or rice noodles then it will be quite different from the traditional Taiwanese beef noodle soup.

If you'd like to learn more about other types of noodles, check out my post here:

How to make Taiwanese beef noodle soup?

First gather your ingredients:

Red Braised Beef

• 1 lb beef shank, cut into 2-inch chunks
• Water (for blanching)
• 1 tablespoon cooking oil
• ½ inch ginger, thinly sliced
• 2 green onions, cut into 2-inch lengths
• 4 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
• 2 tablespoon chili bean paste (doubanjiang)
• 1 large tomato, cut into wedges, or 1 cup cherry tomatoes
• 3 tablespoon rice wine
• ¼ cup light soy sauce
• ¼ cup dark soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 5 star anise
• ½ tablespoon Sichuan Peppercorn (optional)
• 3-4 dried red chili peppers (optional)
• Salt, to taste

Noodle Soup (serves 4)

• 12 oz of noodle of choice
• 4 eggs
• 2 cups Greens of choice (I recommend Bok Choy)
• Beef or bone broth, as needed to dilute soup
• Optional Garnish:
  • Scallion, chopped
  • Cilantro, chopped
  • Red chili oil or sauce, as desired
  • Pickled green mustard (酸菜)

Directions

First, we're going to do is blanch the beef. Place beef in a pot of cold water, and bring it to a boil. Once it boils, immediately remove the beef from heat and rinse with cold water. Discard the water.

Now, heat a wok or large skillet over medium-high heat. Once it is hot, add cooking oil, ginger, green onions, and garlic. Stir fry until fragrant.

Add the chunks of blanched beef and tomatoes in to the wok/pan. Stir fry for about 2 minutes or until beef is slightly browned. Stir in light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, rice wine, and brown sugar.

Transfer to a soup pot. Add enough water to cover the beef. Add star anise, Sichuan peppercorn, and dried red chili (if using).

Bring to a boil, and then reduce the heat to low, cover, and let it simmer for about 2 hours or until desired tenderness, stirring occasionally so it cooks evenly.

Remove from heat and set aside and we will move on to the noodles.

Cook noodles according to the package instructions. This usually consists of boiling a pot of water and adding the noodles, and then adding water to cook it completely. However, each type of noodle cooks differently so follow the instructions!

When the noodles are cooked, remove the noodles from the water.

Here, you can customize what you like in your beef noodle soup. As an example, to add bok choy and egg, you'd add the bok choy to the boiling water and an egg to cook for 3 minutes, then remove from heat.

In a bowl, add noodles, vegetables, poached egg (if using), and red braised beef (including beef, broth and tomatoes). You can also add extra hot water or chicken broth to dilute the braised beef sauce/broth if it is too concentrated.

Also, add toppings such as scallions, cilantro, pickled green mustard, and red chili oil/sauce as desired and serve!

Here are some examples below!

Added carrots in the red braised beef, and added Taiwanese spinach and sprinkled with green onions:

Added a poached egg and served with napa cabbage:

Added Romain lettuce, and prserved veggies, and green onions:

Bok Chy and Poached Egg:

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