Being as practically the whole world has decided to board the Olympic bandwagon and embrace all things Chinese, I thought I may as well get in on it by adding a little Chinese influence to my Tasty Quickie this week with a classic noodle soup.
I was first introduced to making this dish by the amazing queen of the culinary world, Nigella Lawson, who includes a great recipe for Chicken Noodle Soup in her festive compendium of recipes, Feast. I have since abandoned Nigella’s wise guidance and added my own touches and variations to create a really tasty, cheap and quick midweek meal.
The best thing about noodle soup is that it can be knocked up in less than 20 minutes, is packed with vitamin rich greens and is incredibly low in fat. This is also a great meal for using up those odd bits of vegetables and leftovers lurking in the fridge as it works just as well with cabbage, chicken or carrots, as it does mange tout and mushrooms. I normally make it with plenty of greens and crunchy baby corn like so:
Ingredients (serves one)
1 block of egg noodles
1 stock cube or sachet instant miso soup (I normally use chicken stock as I find it the tastiest, but vegetable stock or instant miso are just as good for a vegetarian option)
1 generous handful of shredded Savoy cabbage (about half a head)
4 baby corn
1 small handful of sugar snap peas or mange tout (you can often buy babycorn and sugar snap peas in a packet together to save money)
1 teaspoon of sesame oil (optional if you don’t have it in, but does add a nice rich flavour)
3-4 florets of broccoli
dash of dark soy sauce
500ml water
Directions
1. Put water, sesame oil and stock cube/miso in a large saucepan and bring to the boil.
2. Add noodles and stir to loose up block. Add all vegetables and cover pan with lid and boil for around 5 minutes until noodles are cooked.
3. Pour all stock, noodles and vegetables into a deep bowl, add a dash of soy sauce and serve.