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Saturday 20 April 2013

posh & healthy pot noodle



This is my new favourite lunch. Be gone, sandwiches ! Helllooooo noodles! If you're bored of having leftovers and bread for your packed lunch, here's a great way to get lots of lovely vegetables, and a nice hot meal, but one that's fresh and light rather than heavy and stodgy like reheated leftovers can be. 

What's fantastic about this is that you can swap the ingredients for whatever you have handy, so I had some wild garlic but had run out of peas. This pot was inspired by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's recipe in his 'Veg Everyday' cookbook. He's not even a vegetarian, but it's a really useful cookbook, and every recipe in it is veggie or vegan. 

Serves 1

1 pot (mine is from Wilkinsons, in the tupperware section, a snip at £4)
1 noodle nest - wholewheat are best. They usually come in packs of 6 in the supermarket
1 spring onion, shopped small
half a carrot, cut into little thin batons
Something dark green and leafy cut into thin strips - I use collard greens, but you could use kale, cabbage, spinach or anything a bit hearty that will stand the boiling water. 
A handful of frozen peas
Tofu - either the ready made pieces by Cauldron  or you can make your own
Grated ginger
1 garlic clove
1/2 small chilli, if you like
1/2 a stock cube
Dark soy sauce to serve

1. Pop the nest in the bottom of the pot, it should fit! Chop all of the vegetables nice and thin, and pop them in the pot vegetable by vegetable. They need to be thin so that they cook through when you add the boiling water. This will make a lovely layered effect! 

2. Once you've got all of your veggies, get out your grater, and use the zesting bit if you have it (very small holes). Zest one garlic clove, and then some ginger too. I buy a hunk of ginger at the supermarket then keep it in the freezer, so it lasts forever. You can grate it frozen, it's perfectly fine!

3. Crumble half a stock cube over the top of this!

4. Add your tofu pieces, or if making your own, get half a block of firm tofu. Press it on some kitchen roll to get most of the moisture out, chop into cubes and fry in a non-stick pan. You can marinade in soy sauce before if you have the time, but I usually don't! Once cooked, add to the top of your layers. You might have to squish everything down a bit.

5. Seal, and take to work like this. Then when you're ready to eat, boil the kettle and pour over enough water to cover all the veg. Don't worry about covering the tofu. Drizzle over some dark soy sauce. Seal again, give it a little wiggle (not a shake, unless you like being scalded) and wait for 10 minutes. 

6. Don't dig in too early, or you will have crunchy noodles! When you're pretty sure it's done, move a fork around in it to check everything seems cooked. Then enjoy! I use a fork and a spoon because the stock tastes so nice.


Yummy! You can also do this in a big bowl, and have multiple nests if you want it for dinner. Just cover the bowls you use with some tinfoil for the cooking process, to stop the heat escaping. It's like a big bowl of wagamamas if you do it like this!  

What vegetables would you use?

2 comments:

  1. Looks gorgeous! I've been wanting to try this for a while. Which brand noodles did you use?

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    1. I use Blue Dragon Wholewheat noodles, the nests are just the right size, and they sell them in my local Sainsburys. But you could use anything that could fit!

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