Making Noodle Soup For Beginners

Part 2 of the First-Time Cooking Starter Pack

You’ve seared bread in a pan to make a grilled cheese which is a dry method of cooking. Now it’s time to switch over to a wet method of cooking, aka boiling. Growing up, I used to make a lot of noodle soups for myself. Mostly using the instant noodle packs that also come with a soup base or seasoning. Those seasoning packs can be pretty unhealthy though.. so we’re going to use a bouillon cube instead. Bouillon cubes can be found in every major supermarket and come in beef, chicken, pork, or vegetable flavors, pick whichever you like best. For the noodles, it would be better to find some that doesn’t come with the packaged seasoning, but it’s fine to just use the dry noodles from those packages if you don’t have access to regular plain old dried noodles.

The Right Pot for the Job

First up is picking a pot and filling it with water. You’re not cooking for the masses, so don’t pick a big a$$ pot. Pick something that could hold about the same amount of water as the bowl you’re going to use. When you fill it with water, only fill it with about the same amount of soup you’ll want with your noodles. The more water you use, the longer it’ll take to boil and the more soup you’ll end up wasting because you can’t fit it in your bowl.

Don’t Get Tricked by a Fake Boil

The secret to making noodle soup is mainly timing and temperature control. When you bring the water to boil, you want to start off with a medium heat, maybe even a medium-high. The water boils when you see the big bubbles form. Don’t be fooled by the little bubbles that appear right before the bigger ones. Once the bigger bubbles form, add in your bouillon cube and stir the water until the cube has melted away into nothing. At this point, your water is probably no longer boiling after the stirring so give it about 30 seconds to come back to a boil.

Drown Those Noodles

Once it’s boiling again, add in the noodles and lower the heat to a medium-low. Your noodles will naturally float at first so use something to dunk it into the water. It doesn’t have to stay submerged the whole time, but it does have to get wet. You’re going to cook the noodles for about 5 minutes, but the timing will mostly depend on how chewy you like your noodles. A good rule of thumb is to cook it about a minute longer once all of the noodles have softened up.

Plating Your Noods

Once the noodles are soft, it’s time to plate it. A trick to avoid making a mess is to put the noodles into the bowl before putting the soup into the bowl. Use chopsticks, tongs, or a spaghetti spoon to extract the noodles into the bowl. Then slowly pour the soup into the bowl until you have your desired amount of liquid in the bowl. You can use a laddle to be neat or just pour it directly into the bowl (I do the latter because I’m an impatient savage)

Want elevate your noodle soup?

• Once the noodles are in the bowl, you can hold off on adding the soup to add in additional items. Don’t worry about the noodles getting cold, it’ll warm right up again when you pour the soup in at the end. If you need to cook your additions, just cook it in the same pot in the same liquid. This will give your soup base a more complex flavor.
• If you want to mimic the complexity of Japanese ramen, you can add a tablespoon of sweet soy sauce, miso, chili oil, or other liquid to the bottom of the bowl before adding the noodles and the soup. You’ve probably seen videos where they add in the noodles after the soup; This is better for combining the soup with the additional liquids, but you’ll need better control when adding in the noodles so you don’t make a mess. Just keep that in mind.

Next up    👉  Cooking Pasta For Beginners