For lunch today, I thought of having some noodles. It’s been a few days of rice and bread. I didn’t have any particular recipe in mind (as usual!) but when I looked in the refrigerator, I knew I had to be more creative than usual – I basically didn’t have sufficient ingredients to make a proper noodles dish. Yes, missed the weekly grocery shopping due to distractions! All I could see were carrots, beans, and seaweed. A small piece of radish was also there. Hmmm. Looks like I can have a feast! As they say, “Necessity is the mother of invention“.

INGREDIENTS	QUANTITY
Noodles	2-3 hand-full of the strands
Soy sauce	1/4 cup for different stages
Sesame seeds (white and black)	1 teaspoon of each
Kale leaves	1 bunch
Green beans	1/2 cup
Carrots	1/2 cup thinly sliced
Paprika or some chilli powder mix	1/4 teaspoon
Tamarind sauce	1 tablespoon
Sesame oil	1-2 tablespoons
Any other oil for frying/roasting	1-2 tablespoons
Dry seaweed	2-3 pieces
Radish	raw and slice them thin
Salt	1 teaspoon

I am using this particular brand of noodles:

These are the other 2 ingredients I am using: Japanese chili powder mix and an Indian tamarind sauce.

COOK THE NOODLE

1. As per the cooking instructions on the noodle pack, cook your noodles. It’s usually the same everywhere – bring to boil your water, add salt and little oil. Then, add your noodles and let it cook in that heat for 4-5 minutes.
2. While the above is going on, add your dry seaweed.
3. Once the time is up, turn off the heat.

STEAM THE KALE

1. You can do this step separately but since I had the hot steaming noodles already, I used the existing heat to cook my kale also. So, once the heat is turned off, add your kale leaves on top of the noodles, cover the pot, and leave it for 2-3 minutes.
2. Then, drain the water out and cool the noodles under cold running water.

SEASON THE NOODLES

1. In a hot wok or pan, add a little bit of oil and place the cooked noodles.
2. Keep stirring the noodles in the oil.
3. Add a few drops of sesame oil and mix more.
4. Add the chili powder and mix again.
5. Add soy sauce and continue the heating and mixing.
6. Keep it aside. If you’ve cooked a large quantity of noodles (like me!), then do the above steps in batches.
7. Keep the brown looking noodles aside.

STIR FRY THE VEGETABLES

1. To a very hot wok or saucepan, add the vegetables. In my case, it was just the carrots and beans.
2. Roast them in a bit of sesame oil.
3. When the colour changes, add a bit of soy sauce.
4. Keep it aside.

THE FINAL TOUCHES

1. In hot oil, saute the ginger slices and green chili slices.
2. Bring them to a crispy feel.
3. Keep it aside.
4. Dry roast some sesame seeds, both white and black.

BRING THEM ALL TOGETHER

1. Bring your noodles, the stir fry vegetables, the crispy ginger-chili mix, and the sesame seeds together. Mix well.
2. Add the tamarind sauce (or any other sauce) and mix well.
3. Add a few slices of raw radish.

SERVE IT

Serve it hot or cold. If you have any sauces for dipping like chili sauce or some soy sauce dips, it would go great also! Hope you liked this one.