Taiwanese beef noodle soup

Taiwanese beef noodle soup combines noodles, tender cooked beef and a seasoned broth, often finished with greens and pickles. In Kaitlin Leung’s published preparation, beef shank is cooked with ginger, garlic, scallions, onion and tomato. Soy sauce, Shaoxing wine and doubanjiang, a spicy bean paste, season the broth, along with an aromatic spice sachet. She gives both a pressure-cooker method and a longer stovetop simmer for the same soup.^[1]

The noodles are cooked separately and assembled in bowls with the beef and broth. Leung uses fresh wheat noodles and blanches bok choy alongside them, then adds coriander, scallions and pickled mustard greens. Her specified pickle is xuecai, also called snow vegetable, which she distinguishes from Cantonese haam choy. These finishing ingredients give the bowl a mixture of fresh herbs, leafy vegetables and sour-salty seasoning around the richer beef broth.^[1]