My Favourite Quick Noodle Bowl
Supper for one doesn't have to be depressing. Whip up Georgie Hayden's Favourite Quick Noodle Bowl from Stirring Slowly for a quick and satisfying meal - it takes just under 10 minutes to make!
From the book
Stirring Slowly: Recipes to Restore and Revive
Hearty comfort food to bring joy
Inspiring home-cooked food with global flavours
Beautiful and accomplished bakes
Introduction
This is probably the meal I make most often when I’m home on my own. It takes less than 10 minutes, and for something with so few ingredients it is well tasty. It does rely on you having the chilli oil in the cupboard, but I can’t big it up enough. It’s worth having, to pimp up most dishes.
Ingredients
| 75g | broccoli |
| 75g | medium egg noodles |
| 1 | spring onion |
| a few sprigs of soft herbs (coriander, chives, mint and basil work well) | |
| 30g | baby leaf spinach |
| 60g | leftover cooked meat or tofu (I particular love shredded ham hock, though any protein will work) |
| 2 tbsp | Addictive Roasted Chilli Oil (see ingredients below), or shop-bought chilli oil |
| ½ tbsp | low-salt soy sauce |
| 1 | lime |
| ½ | ripe avocado |
| sea salt and freshly ground black pepper | |
| For the Addictive Roasted Chilli Oil (makes 500ml): | |
| 2 | fresh red chillies |
| 4 | garlic cloves |
| 1 tbsp | dried red chilli flakes |
| 1 tsp | Szechuan peppercorns |
| 1 tsp | sea salt |
| 1 tsp | ground black pepper |
| 1 tbsp | sesame seeds (a mix of white and black would be ideal, but if you can't get black just use white) |
| 500ml | flavourless oil (rapeseed or groundnut are best) |
Essential kit
If making the Addictive Roasted Chilli Oil, you will need a food processor.
Method
If you are making the Addictive Roasted Chilli Oil, you'll need to do this first.
First, remove the stalks from the chillies and roughly chop. Peel the garlic cloves. Place them both in a food processor along with the dried chilli flakes, Szechuan peppercorns, salt and black pepper and blitz till finely chopped. Spoon into a saucepan with the sesame seeds and pour in the oil. Place on a low heat and gently sauté for 10 minutes, until everything is lightly toasted and golden.
Leave to cool completely, then pour into a clean bottle and seal. It'll last for months.
Now for the noodles…
Put a medium-size pan of salted water on to boil on a medium heat. As it comes to the boil, trim the broccoli and cut into even-size florets. Add the broccoli and noodles to the pan and cook for 4 minutes.
While they are cooking, trim and finely slice the spring onion. Pick the herb leaves and finely chop. Roughly chop the spinach, if you like, and shred or cut your chosen protein into bite-size pieces.
As soon as the broccoli and noodles are ready, reserve a splash of the cooking water, then drain in a sieve or colander and return them to the dry pan. Stir in the spinach, chilli oil, soy sauce and sliced spring onion. Squeeze in the lime juice, and use a teaspoon to scoop in nuggets of the avocado. Add the chopped herbs and stir everything together for a minute, adding a little of the reserved cooking water to loosen – you want the avocado to break down, resulting in a spicy, creamy dressing. Tuck in straight away.
