Winter is a great season for noodles especially hot and warm noodle soup. Lanzhou beef noodle soup, one of the national soup star in China looks plain and common. But it successfully obtains the love of all the foodies who have token the first bite. Comparing with the newly rising stars (like Chongqing noodles), it has been a traditional national Chinese noodles for quite a long history.

A typical Lanzhou beef noodles soup is described to be “1 clear, 2 white, 3 red, 4 green, 5 yellow” (一清、二白、三红、四绿、五黄) to signify respectively clear soup, white radish, red chili oil, green coriander and garlic leek and yellow noodles. Alkali ash, a traditional important ingredient in real Lanzhou style hand pulled noodles, brings a faint yellowish to the noodles.

In this recipe, we will try our best to reproduce the soup and taste at home. However Lanzhou style hand-pulled noodle is unprocurable to me, so I bought packaged lamian noodles from the market. If you ever visit China especially the northern provinces, I highly recommend trying at least one bowl of authentic Lanzhou beef noodle soup. You can be served with extremely wide noodles, thick noodles, thin noodles, and extremely thin noodles and may have the chance to watch the hand-pulled process. It is quite magic when I see the performances.

Part I: Beef stock

I use beef oxtail and back bones for the basic ingredients for beef stock. You can use leg bones. Besides, by adding chicken bones, beef shank (or beef flank), ginger, green onion and spices, the taste of the soup is well improved.

Ingredients

1 beef oxtail (around 1000g)+ 250g back bones + 250g chicken bones+ 1/3 of one beef shank (around 500g).

Removing the blood waters: add all the bones and meat in a large pot, pour in enough water to cover, add green onion and 4 slices of ginger and then bring to a boiling. Transfer out and clean.

Soak all the spices with around 1/2 cup boiling hot water for 10 minutes and then wrap all of them with a glaze bag and seal with cotton lines.

Spice list:

2 star anises
1 small piece of Chinese cinnamon
2 bay leaves
1/4 teaspoon Sichuan peppercorn (must)
4 cloves
1/4 teaspoon whole cumin seeds
1/8 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 cardamom
3 Amomum Cardamomum pods
1 dried chili
1 Amomum tsaoko

Add all the bones and beef shank, scallion whites and spiced wrapped in the glaze bag. Pour around 2.5L to 3L water (separately for high pressure cooker and cast iron soup pot). Bring to boil and simmer for around 1.5 to 2 hours.

Add salt to taste.

Then take out the beef shank and cut thinly.

Part II: Chive oil and garnish

Chop garlic leek (蒜苗) and coriander. Pre-make the chili oil and let it set side for at least 4 hours (the oil turns red after soaking)

Peel and daikon into thin slices and then cook in the soup base for 2 minutes. Transfer out.

Cook noodles as directed. Scoop only soup to cover the noodles.

Assemble with slices of beef shank, cooked daikon slices and garnish garlic leek and coriander.

Drizzle chili oil before serving!

5 from 1 vote

Lanzhou Beef Noodle Soup

Prep Time

2 hrs

Cook Time

1 hr

Total Time

3 hrs

An addictive Lanzhou beef noodle soup

Course: Soup, staple

Cuisine: Chinese

Keyword: Beef, noodles

Servings: 4

Calories: 1248 kcal

Author: Elaine

Ingredients

1 beef oxtail , around 1000g, cut into 2cm thick pieces
250 g back bones
250 g chicken bones
500 g beef shank
2 green onions
1 thumb ginger , sliced
2 scallion whites
3 L water
salt to taste
Noodles for serving

Spices

2 star anise
1 small piece of Chinese cinnamon
2 bay leaves
1/4 tsp. Sichuan peppercorn , must
4 cloves
1/4 tsp. whole cumin seeds
1/8 tsp. fennel seeds
1 cardamom
3 Amomum Cardamomum pods
1 dried chili pepper
1 Amomum tsaoko

Garnish and drizzle

1 cup chopped coriander
1 cup chopped garlic leek
half of a daikon radish
chili oil , as needed

Instructions

Make the stock

Remove the blood waters: add all the bones and meat in a large pot, pour in enough water to cover, add green onion and 4 slices of ginger and then bring to a boiling. Transfer out and clean.
Soak all the spices with around 1/2 cup boiling hot water for 10 minutes and then wrap all of them with a glaze bag and seal with cotton lines.
Add all the bones and beef shank, scallion whites and spiced wrapped in the glaze bag. Pour around 2.5L to 3 L water (separately for high pressure cooker and cast iron soup pot). Bring to boil and simmer for around 1.5 to 2 hours. Add salt to taste.

Cook and assemble noodles

Take out the beef shank and cut thinly. Cook radish slices in broth for 2 minutes, set aside.
Cook noodles as directed and then scoop enough beef stock to cover. Top with daikon slices, beef shank slices, coriander, garlic leek (or green onion) and chili oil. Serve hot!

Nutrition Facts

Lanzhou Beef Noodle Soup

Amount Per Serving

Calories 1248 Calories from Fat 486

% Daily Value*

Total Fat 54g 83%

Saturated Fat 22g 110%

Cholesterol 304mg 101%

Sodium 3115mg 130%

Potassium 732mg 21%

Total Carbohydrates 83g 28%

Dietary Fiber 6g 24%