Recipe: The Best Asian Noodle Soup

I love this recipe. It’s light and healthy, super quick to make, can be easily modified and is a great last minute “What do I cook for dinner?” meal. In fact, the only downside to this recipe is the lack of a snazzy name – so I’ve simply called it what it is.

To bulk up this recipe you can add in leftover roast chicken, wok-fried pork fillet, toss in some prawns or even poach fish fillets in the broth (this takes about 5-10 minutes depending on the thickness of the fillets). The veggies are easily interchangeable as well so by all means chuck in whatever leftover half-used veggies you’ve got loitering in the bottom of the vegetable crisper (sliced carrot and broccoli florets work great!)

 

Asian Noodle Soup

{Serves 2}

Ingredients

• 20-30g cashew nuts, peanuts, sesame seeds or pumpkin seeds (or a mixture!)
• 3cm piece of ginger, peeled and finely chopped
• 1 clove garlic, crushed or finely chopped
• ½ red chilli, finely sliced
• 1 tspn powdered chicken stock
• 1 nest of Chang’s vermicelli rice noodles
• 2 spring onions, cut into 1cm pieces
• 100g sugar snap peas
• 100g baby corn, halved
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 bunch pak choy (trim the end then halve it so the soft leaves and stems are separate)
• 1/2 lime, juiced
• 1 handful of bean shoots (optional)
• 225g tin of water chestnuts, drained (optional)

Method

1. This recipe only needs one decent sized saucepan so pop it on the stove on a medium heat
2. Chuck in the nuts (no oil necessary)
3. Toast the nuts, stirring often, until they begin to go golden
4. Remove them from the saucepan, put them in a little bowl and set aside.
5. Fill the saucepan with 1 litre of boiling water from the kettle
6. Add in the ginger, garlic, chilli, powdered stock, rice noodles, spring onion, sugar snap peas, baby corn, soy sauce and the stems (not the leaves yet!) of the pak choy.
7. Let the soup boil
8. Once the noodles are soft (about 5 minutes) add in the leaves of the pak choy, the lime juice, bean shoots and water chestnuts
9. Once the leaves are wilted, serve the soup in bowls with the toasted nuts sprinkled over the top