Chinese Noodle Soup

This is a reader-favourite recipe included by popular demand in my debut cookbook “Dinner”!

Fast Chinese Noodle Soup!

This Chinese Noodle Soup is one of my classic “back pocket” recipes because it’s so versatile and incredibly quick. Because people who cook all day for a living need quick dinners for real life – ask any chef!! Here’s a run down of how it goes:

Broth: Plonk and simmer 6 ingredients for 10 minutes (no trip to the Asian store required!);Noodles: Prepare fresh OR dried noodles according to packet directions;Toppings: Rummage in fridge and locate vegetables & proteins of choice. Chop roughly and cook with the noodles or in the soup. broth; andServe: Place noodles in bowls. Pour over soup and toppings.

See? 10 minutes!

Seasonings for Chinese soup broths

If you’ve ever been disappointed by a recipe for an Asian soup broth before, it’s probably because it was missing basic but essential flavourings. It takes more than just chicken broth and soy sauce to make a Chinese soup broth! Here’s what all you need:

Chinese cooking wine – the key ingredient. Just 1.5 tablespoons adds complexity and depth of flavour to the store bought chicken stock. Without it, the broth will taste “flat” ie missing something. Substitute with: dry sherry, mirin or cooking sake. Best non alcoholic sub for this recipe: substituting some of the soy sauce with oyster sauce (which adds extra “umami” into the broth to compensate);Garlic and ginger – smash the garlic and slice the ginger to allow the fresh flavours to infuse into the broth. Keeping them whole makes it easy to pick out later – you could very well grate them straight into the broth using a fine grater, but you will get little bits in the soup (rather than being a clear broth);Sesame oil – for the flavour!Chicken broth/stock – use low sodium otherwise the broth may be a touch too salty for your taste. Use a decent one, because it’s the foundation of the soup broth (🇦🇺 I use Campbells. Better than Continental). Best option if you have it: homemade chicken stock!;Soy sauce – either all purpose or light soy sauce will work here. Don’t use dark soy sauce or sweet soy sauce – the flavour of these are too intense; andSugar – just a touch, to balance out the flavours.

What goes in the noodle soup

And here’s what I put in the soup:

Noodles – Chinese noodle soups are traditionally made with thin egg noodles (pictured above, and below in the soup). Fresh ones (sold in the fridge section) have a better texture than dried. But any noodles will be fine here – fresh or dried, rice noodles, white or yellow noodles, Hokkien, Singapore noodles, wide, thin, vermicelli, ramen noodles (yup!), diet noodles (like konyaku – been there, done that), zoodles (been there too). Really. ANY noodles will be great in this broth!Bok Choy (also known as buk choi, buk choi, pak choi, or pok choi – crazy right??!) – or any vegetables. I like bok choy because you just split them in half down the middle and bam! You’re done! (Recipe notes includes an extensive list of chopping and cook directions for common vegetables)Cooked Chicken (poach it using this method that guarantees juiciness)- or any other protein, as desired. Everybody keeps little containers of cooked shredded chicken in the freezer, right?!Green onion or coriander/cilantro, or chives, or even finely sliced onion (red, white, yellow brown) – something for a little hit of freshness.

How to make Chinese Noodle Soup

And here’s how it happens in 10 minutes. (And to all those cheeky buggers who will point out that if you have to simmer for 10 minutes, then it takes longer than 10 minutes – fine! You can take a 2 minutes off the simmer time!😉) PRO TIP: Never cook noodles in the soup broth unless a recipe specifically calls for it. Noodles suck up loads of liquid when they cook, so if you do that you’ll end up with way less broth than you expect. Learnt this the hard way. 😖

Make it even HEALTHIER!!

Being that this is a noodle soup recipe and all, noodles are a key ingredient here. Even so, it clocks in at just 352 calories for a bowl. But if you want to cut down on the carbs and calories even further, just skip the noodles and load it up with tons more vegetables to make a Chinese vegetable soup. In fact, it’s one of my “go-to” diet dinners (which should happen more frequently than it does…). Do I miss the noodles? Of course I do. But I console myself with a healthy dose of chilli paste and lots of fresh herbs, Chicken Pho style. But before you make it diet, try it the way it’s intended. THEN healthify it!!! – Nagi x

Watch How To Make It

This recipe features in my debut cookbook Dinner. The book is mostly new recipes, but this is a reader favourite included by popular demand! Originally published June 2016. Long overdue for a video to be added with brand new photos and process steps!