The incoherent ramblings of a grumpy old man

Recipe: Chilli beef noodle soup

*** Update: this is the only post I decided to keep from the previous iteration of this blog. I’m currently dabbling with vegetarianism and will be trying the no-meat version of this again soon. Will report back with an update and a photo when I do.

We had my favourite Chilli beef noodle soup for dinner again tonight, so I thought I’d post the recipe. It’s very healthy, low fat and fairly simple to prepare.

It’s a modified recipe from noodle restaurant chain, Wagamama, although I’ve tweaked it a bit to suit my own tastes.

Ingredients (this is for 2 of us; we’re quite greedy though, so maybe enough for 4…)

• 250g Ramen, Miso or Udon noodles.
• 1/2 red onion, sliced into half rings.
• 3-4 spring onions, shredded. If anyone can recommend a simple method to shred spring onions, I’m all ears.
• 1 x red chilli, trimmed and de-seeded and sliced; personally, I leave the seeds in for a little extra heat
• 1 x lime, quartered.
• 1 litre chicken stock (I use Knorr liquid concentrate)
• 3-4 tablespoons chilli ramen sauce (see below)
• 150g beansprouts
• A handful of fresh coriander (chopped) – optional (the other half isn’t a fan)
• 6 mushrooms, quartered
• 200g sirloin steak, trimmed of all fat
• A little sunflower or other low-saturates oil
• A little Teriyaki sauce (or Soy sauce)

For the chilli ramen sauce (Makes 125ml – enough for 4 portions)

• 5 tablespoons Nam Pla (Thai fish sauce)
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons vinegar
• 3 tablespoons sweet chilli sauce (sometimes I go for 4tbsp or more)

For the Chilli Ramen Sauce

Disolve the sugar in the vinegar over a gentle heat then remove from the heat and set aside to cool before mixing in fish sauce and sweet chilli sauce

For the noodles

1. Put a heavy bottom frying pan or griddle pan onto over medium heat to warm up.
2. Lightly rub the steak with a little oil and set aside.
3. Pour your stock into a fairly large pan along with the mushrooms and Chilli Ramen Sauce. Set over a low to medium heat and allow to gentle come to the a simmer. No need to boil.
4. Pop your steak into the hot pan and cook for 2-3 minutes on either side depending on thickness of steak and how you like your meat. Turn the steak once – don’t keep messing with – leave it alone!
5. Whilst the steak is cooking, fill a small to medium sized saucepan with water and bring to the boil. Once boiling, throw in the beansprouts for 30 seconds and then remove them from the heat and drain them over another saucepan or bowl to retain the cooking water. Run the drained beanspouts under cold water to cools them down and prevent them from cooking further.
6. By now your steak is probably nearly done, so set the beansprout water over a medium high heat and bring it back to the boil and return your attention to the steak. Once cooked remove from the heat, brush it with Teriyaki (or soy sauce) and set aside to rest for 4 minutes.
7. Handily the noodles should take about 4 minutes to cook in the now boiling beansprout water!
8. At about 3 1/2 minutes into the noodles cooking time, thinly slice the steak and get two bowls together for serving in. I suggest BIG bowls
9. Now it’s simply a matter of assembly! Distribute the noodles and beansprouts evenly between the two bowls and then top up each with the broth and mushrooms that have been simmering away happily for the last 5 minutes or so. Split the steak between the bowls before topping off with the onions, chilli, spring onions, lime wedges and coriander and serve.

As I mentioned earlier, if you’re a veggie or vegan, you could just omit the beef and swap chicken stock for vegetable stock. My other half doesn’t eat much meat so from the recipe above, she has all the mushrooms and I have all the steak .

Reading back over that, it sounds complicated but really, it’s not. And it’s well worth it, I think.