Don't Cook Ramen Noodles, Soak 'Em Cold!
Soak Your Noodles 'Bout an Hour
Turns out instant noodles, like your cheap-ass Maruchan and Nissin ramen packets, are already cooked. They’re dried by frying. Ya just need to hydrate them.
I just break mine up and soak ‘em in my Big Bubba Mug for about an hour, more or less. Mostly, I just set ‘em aside and come back awhile later.
They set up just fine, good texture. Of your cheap noodles, I think Maruchan has better mouthfeel than Nissin when just soaked. (BTW, Vanholio tried the same thing with regular pasta. Turns to mush).
Three Ramen Salad 'Recipes'
Not going to give ya a bunch a proper recipes. Vanholia don’t do that shit. But here’s three ramen noodle salads I made, just for inspirationals.
1. Ramen With Vinaigrette Slaw and Chicken
This was my first evil experiment. I had confetti slaw on hand – that’s bagged slaw mix, made with broccoli stems, cabbage, carrots, etc., but sans dressing. And Walmart had canned chicken breast on sale. My rusty old brain wheels turned.
Soaked the noodles with the juice from the canned chicken and more water, plus canola oil, garlic salt, Tapatio hot sauce, and apple cider vinegar to make a vinaigrette. I don’t know exactly how much of anything – winged it.
After the noodles were soft, mixed 'em in two quart-size, Ziplock-type bags with chopped onion, the slaw veggies, and the canned chicken. Two delicious meals!
2. Ramen With Three Bean Salad
I soaked the ramen with the juice from a can a three bean salad, garlic salt, dried fried onions, and vegetarian bacon bits.
After the noodles got soft, I just mixed in the beans. Awesome! And you’ll notice it’s all from dry goods.
3. Ramen With Mayo and Egg
This was basically macaroni salad with added egg.
After hydrating the instant noodles for an hour or so in my Big Bubba Mug, I drained off the extra water. Then I added garlic salt, lotsa mayo, and two hard-boiled eggs.
Just kinda crumbled the eggs in there with my hands, then broke it up more with a fork. Mixed everythin' all around.
Good shit. Stuffed me like a Christmas goose!
What Ramen Salads Are in Your Brain?
Those are just three ideas Vanholio had and liked. You could do just about anythin'. What would you make? Comment below. And see more great ideas in my YouTube Ramen! playlist.
Also See ...
- RoadPro Stove Secrets – Hard Boiled Eggs
- Eating Roadkill Rabbit Down by the River
- Prison Ramen: Recipes and Stories from Behind Bars (Amazon.com)
- The Top Five Reasons Why Ramen Noodles Are Tasty Little Death Traps (Westword)
This #vanlife #manifesto was originally posted at Vanholio.com. Also follow me here on Steemit @vanholio.
Thanks for the ideas, sounds good although maybe not super healthy to eat all the time, haha. Nice insight about not needing to cook the noodles. I could do that now even without a stove.
I'm not planning to use refrigeration at all so I'll be working with dehydrated or canned inputs mainly with the exception of longer shelf life items like garlic and stuff. I'm thinking of maybe getting some mason jars to store the dried foods in. I need to put together some kind of pantry because right now all of my food is stuffed in a cardboard box and it's a pain in the ass to find anything.
I don't use a fridge or ice chest.
Nice, we'll have compatible food inputs for any future cooking related discussions.
That's actually a pretty brilliant idea for the times when you don't happen to have hot water in the van.
I never thought about it.
We currently only have a 12V kettle, that we use with our solar battery. But 1l drains the battery by half and takes for ever...
So the idea to make a salad instead sounds very appealing!
Thank you :D
I got the Max Burton 12v Digital Stove to Go, plus two tiny 12v kettles. Plenty a solar, but yeah, takes a long time ta get water boilin'. Not worth it sometimes.