How to Upgrade your Instant Noodles

Last week I posted 4 simple recipes on how to make sardines special. The blog post contains recipes like sardines omelette, crispy fried sardines, herbed sardines and tomato and basil sardines.

This week our highlight is instant noodles. Many Filipinos like instant noodles because it is very easy to prepare. But having it over and over can be boring. So you would really need these simple techniques to upgrade it. Do not worry because these are very simple and at the same time affordable.

Vegetize it

The simplest way to spice up your instant noodles is to add vegetables. Some of the vegetables you can add are:

·         Go green – watercress (kangkong), cabbage and spinach. You just simply cut your greens into small pieces and add them to your noodles. Add fish sauce to taste. Or you can also add shrimp paste if you want to take it a little further.

·         Go floral – add broccoli, cauliflower and carrots (yes, this is not similar to the previous two but it will add color). Mushrooms can be added too.Soy sauce or fish sauce can be added to improve the taste. Black pepper can also be added. You can also add a small amount of flour diluted in a little water to make the soup thicker.

·         Go beany – you’re not really gonna add beans here. What you need are bean sprouts. These are commonly used in many versions of Asian noodles so you cannot go wrong with it. Soy sauce and fried garlic can help improve the taste.

There are a lot of other vegetables that you can add like corn, peas, potato, etc. Do not feel limited by these suggestions. You can even mix and match.  

Let's Meat Up

Like vegetables, you can also add slices of meat to your instant noodles. Here are some suggestions.

·         Chicken – boil chicken fillet (add salt while boiling). You can shred or cut in cubes before adding. You can add a few ginger slices while cooking the instant noodles or you can just add it while boiling the chicken.

·         Pork – slice pork tenderloin thinly. Add it while cooking the instant noodles. If you have a little more time, you can fry pork (cut into small pieces – like the size of your thumb) first before adding to the noodles.

·         Beef – have the beef cut bacon-thin. Pan-grill the beef before adding to the noodles to let the taste come out.  

Sea-son

Seafood is also great for instant noodles.

·       Shrimp-ify – a very good way to upgrade your instant noodle is to add shrimps. You can add the shrimps while boiling or you can also grill it first.

·         Fish – fish fillet can also be added. The best way to do this is to fry the fish fillet first in butter before adding to the noodles. Once added, squeeze a slice of lemon to the soup. If you have more time, you can dip the fish fillet first in egg-flour batter before frying and adding to the noodle.

·         Clam-y – clams and mussels can also be added. Just add them while boiling the noodles. Once cooked, squeeze lemon or calamansi.

Matching Type

The nice thing about the suggestions mentioned above is that you can mix and match them. You can add vegetables, meat and seafood all together. Just make sure you find the right mix to please your palate. Here are some suggestions that I like.

·         Go green and pork (the fried version).

·         Go floral and beef.

·         Go beany and chicken

·         Go beany and beef.

·         Go green and fish.

·         Go floral and fish fillet (dipped in egg-flour batter).

·         Go beany and shrimps.

·         Go beany and clam-y.

Milky Way

If you’ve seen my Pinoy Laksa recipe you would know what I mean. You can actually add coconut milk and curry to your instant noodles to make it a little bit more exotic. A 2:1 water and coconut combination should be your guide. As for the curry, you can dissolve a small amount in little water before adding. Add shrimps and bean sprouts. You can add spring onions too.

We’re not done yet. There are still a few more suggestions here to upgrade your instant noodles.

Egg-cellent

You guessed that right – you’ll need some eggs for the following recipes.

·         You can simple add hardboiled egg to your instant noodle soup. Sprinkle spring onions.

·         You can also beat eggs and fry. After frying, you can cut it into strips and add on top of your noodle soup.

·         You also do the egg-drop technique. Beat the eggs before mixing into the boiling soup. Make sure to slowly add the eggs into the soup. And while you’re adding the egg, slowly stir.