Sesame Noodles

I’m not usually a fan of ginger flavoured foods but I’ve been experimenting with more flavours lately, and ginger is meant to have natural healing and health properties. I’m definitely glad I decided to give it another chance because this recipe is bursting at the seams with flavour and salt (not that you will notice it at all).

The flavour is a very fresh and leaves your taste buds with a very zingy vibe.

You can decide how much sauce you want to use, but my philosophy has always been the more sauce, the merrier! I’m never one to hold back on adding it to any recipe. If you find the sauce a bit too strong, you don’t need to mix the full amount in as it will be diluted in the mixture. It is completely up to you! The great thing is that you create the sauce prior to adding it to the rest of the recipe so you can add as much as you like!

Makes: For 2

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup chicken (approx. one chicken breast) (*Note if you are a vegetarian you can change the chicken for tofu)
• 1/4 cup coriander/cilantro
• 7 mushrooms (chopped)
• 1 zucchini (chopped)
• noodles (enough for two people)
• * optional 100g tofu (chopped)
• * optional 1 tablespoon sesame seeds

Sauce ingredients:

• 2 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce (*note use gluten-free soy sauce if required)
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon garlic paste
• 1/2 teaspoon chili flakes
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon ginger (grated)

Method

Step 1: Place a saucepan over high heat, fill with water and bring to a boil. Add the noodles and bring back to a boil again. Keep an eye on the noodles – depending on the type of noodles the cooking time will vary, have a look on the packaging of the noodles to determine how long the noodles should be cooked for (time should be approx. 8 – 10 minutes).

Step 2: While the noodles are cooking you should prepare the sauce (alternatively you can prepare the sauce prior to cooking the noodles if you do not want to be under any time pressure). Place the grated ginger (1 tablespoon), soy sauce (2 1/2 tablespoons), vegetable oil (2 tablespoons), garlic paste (1 tablespoon), chili flakes (1/2 teaspoon) and sesame oil (1 tablespoon) in a small bowl and mix with a spoon until thoroughly combined. Taste it and see if you are happy with the flavouring.

Step 3: Prepare the chicken into bite sized pieces (I cut mine into strips of about 2cm by 4cm) and place onto a frying pan over medium heat. Cook the chicken until lightly golden on both sides – make sure the chicken is cooked through so to avoid food poisoning. *Note – if you are vegetarian prepare your tofu at this Step, or, if you are using both tofu and chicken in your recipe prepare both at this Step.

Step 4: The noodles should be cooked by now, drain them in a colander, place the noodles back into the frying pan with the cooked chicken and pour the sauce mixture over the chicken and noodles. With tongs toss the sauce throughout the noodles and chicken so that the sauce mixture is evenly coated through-out.

Step 5: Add all the vegetables and coriander/cilantro to the pan and cook until the vegetables are ready. *Note you can use any vegetables you want in this recipe – I used mushrooms and zucchini this time.

Step 6: Dish up the noodle mixture and sprinkle the sesame seeds on top.

Step 2: Prepare the sauce.

Step 4: Add the noodles to the cooked chicken in the pan.

Step 5: Add all the other vegetables to the pan.

Good the next day?

Ok i’ll be completely honest on this one. I PERSONALLY liked it more the next day cold, but that was not the general view in my household. I found that overnight the sauce had a chance to soak into the noodles so the flavour was stronger as a result and, as for it being cold rather than hot, that was partly my slackness, but I actually enjoyed it that way and will be doing it with leftovers in the future!

Vegetarian?

I would suggest swapping the chicken for tofu. I have made this recipe having swapped these two ingredients around and it tastes really nice. At Step 3, instead of preparing and making the chicken, cut up regular tofu (you don’t want to use silken tofu in this recipe) and cook it.

Enjoy a savoury main meal recipe from me for once!

x

P.S the recipe is adapted from blogger Kayln’s Kitchen and the original can be found here.