Kicker Cashew & Sesame Wholewheat Noodles
With spinach, grated carrot, sugarsnap peas and chopped spring onions in a spicy buffalo broth.
Any Friday is a good day for noodle soup, but it's a particularly good day for it today, being itself the actual motha f*cking Friday of all Fridays - Good Friday!
And what better way to spend this splendid bank holiday afternoon, than lazing about on the sofa, catching up on various social media newsings and musings, playing "Don't Get Stabbed in Your Fingertip" with BaileyCat (I always lose) and trying not to feel too sorry for yourself for the smidgen of excess at the pub the night before that's left you a little more sh*te 'n' queasy than bright 'n' breezy today. Brunch, no doubt, will need to be a quick 'n' easy affair. Cue noodles...
This tasty offering was scraped together out of the scant offerings from my cupboards, fridge and freezer. (I hadn't had a chance to hit the supermarket yesterday and I'm in no mood for a trip there today, so, time to get all Chef MacGyver'd up in this kitchen!)
Ingredients I managed to magically assemble together included (for one person):
A nest of dried wholewheat noodles*
Four chunks of frozen spinach
A handful of sugarsnap peas
A few teaspoons of sesame seeds
Soy sauce, buffalo hot sauce (I had Frank's), regular-style hot pepper sauce (I had Econa Special Reserve) to taste
*Any quick-cook noodles will work for this; I've used flat rice noodles, vermicelli and wheat soba in the past and even wholewheat spaghetti noodles!
Pop the noodles in a medium sized saucepan over medium heat and add freshly boiled water til around half to two-thirds of the way submerged.
Chuck the frozen spinach chunks in a bowl and microwave for two minutes (I find this easier and quicker to defrost them than adding them straight to the boiling water)
Meanwhile, check if the bottom half of the noodles have softened and if so, give em all a good swish around the pot with a fork to submerge the rest and separate them out a bit. Reduce heat to a simmer and at this point, you can add the veggie stock cube to the water.
Wash, top, tail and chop the spring onion and peel, thinly slice or grate the carrot however you feel like (I thin-sliced it with the peeler).
Once spinach is defrosted, add it and the rest of the veggies to the pot and stir in. Add a few splashes of your favourite soy sauce and a good few dollops of buffalo sauce (extra brownie points if you've bothered to make your own!) and stir. Turn off heat and allow the veggies to warm in the water.
Throw the cashews and sesame seeds in a small saucepan or frying pan and toast over high heat until they brown lightly and start to smell amazing! Remove from heat and transfer quickly to a small bowl to cool (nobody likes burned sesame seeds!)
Grab your favourite noodle bowl, transfer the noodle mix and broth to it and throw the cashews and sesame seeds right on top. Add a few generous dashes of hot sauce, or more buffalo sauce if you like, et voilà! Kicker noodle soup complete!!! Now grab some water, head back to the sofa, pop your favourite Netflix TV binge show on and enjoy! (and worry about the mess you left in the kitchen later...)
And don't forget to slurp (guzzle?!) the remainder broth right out of the bowl... that's the best bit! 😆😋
