Sesame Oil Kidney Noodle Soup is a traditional dish in Taiwan, especially for people trying to ‘heal’ and be healthier. If you’re not used to organ meat, you might not ever try this dish, but if you’ve ever had it before you know how delicious this noodle soup can be!

What is Sesame Oil Kidney Noodle Soup?

Sesame Oil Pork Kidney Noodle Soup (or 麻油腰子麵線) is made with pork kidneys stir fried with ginger in sesame oil, and then cooked flour vermicelli noodles are added along to make a noodle soup.

By the way, you have ever had Taiwanese Sesame Oil Chicken or Taiwanese Sesame Oil Chicken Noodle Soup – you’ll be familiar with how flavorful this noodle soup can be!

Health Benefits of Organ Meats

What Are Organ Meats? Organ meats or aka offal are the meat of the organs, such as liver, kidney, heart, from animals that people usually eat, such as chicken, pork, and beef.

Back in the day organ meat was actually consumed quite often because they were super nutritious, but nowadays they’re not as popular. But one thing remains the same – they’re still very nutritious.

Specific types of organ meats nutrition can vary but they’re almost always packed with vitamin B vitamins such as B12 and folate, and healthy minerals such as iron, zinc, magnesium, selenium, and they’re a great source of protein.

How to Prepare Kidney

If you are thinking about cooking pork kidney, you will want to do some preparation prior. This can be done by cutting the pair of kidneys in half, and removing any tubes and fat.

Then you will want to use a sharp knife and cut diagonal criss-crosses on them. Then soak them in salt water for about 2 hours.

Prior to cooking we will also blanch the meat. Blanching meat is a process where the meat is covered with water and brought to a boil. Then, as soon as the water comes to a boil, the impurities in the water are skimmed from the surface and the ‘dirty’ water is drained.

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.

For this recipe, you will want to use mian xian (麵線). It’s also known as wheat vermicelli and is thinner than your average wheat noodles. Don’t get it mixed up with mifen (米粉) which is also very thin but is actually a rice noodle, not wheat.

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

How to make Taiwanese Kidney Noodle Soup

First prepare your ingredients:

• 1 pair pork kidney, washed and cleaned
• 2 inch of ginger, thinly sliced
• 2 tbsp light sesame oil
• 2 tbsp black sesame oil
• 1/3 cup rice wine (we use michiu)
• 3 tbsp black sesame oil
• Salt, as desired
• Flour vermicelli noodles, as desired
• Water, as needed

Prepare your ingredients

First, cut the pair of kidneys in half, and removing any tubes and fat. Then cut the kidney in to smaller pieces – about 2 inch chunks.

Then using a sharp knife, cut diagonal criss-crosses on them. Then soak them in cold salted water for about 2 hours. Rinse kidney and place aside.

Prepare your ginger by slicing the ginger thinly.

Cooking the kidney

We’re not going to blanch the pork kidneys. To do this, bring a small pot to a boil. Add pork kidneys and bring water to a boil. Then immediately remove kidney from pot. Discard the murky water.

In a large cooking pan or wok, heat light sesame oil on medium heat. Add sliced ginger and let it fry until fragrant (about a minute).

Add kidneys to the cooking pan or wok. Stir fry for a bit and then add rice wine, black sesame oil, and sat as desired.

Continue to stir fry for another 2 minutes or until kidneys are cooked thoroughly but not over cooked or else it will be tough and not as tasty. Remove from heat and set aside.

Assembling the noodle soup

Cook flour vermicelli 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 I recommend following the instructions.

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

In a bowl, add noodles and the stir fried kidney and ginger.

Add extra water as needed to make it as ‘soupy’ as you want. You may add more salt as desired also.

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