Instant noodles are delicious and although they’re unhealthy, we still eat them a lot. Why? Because we have our wants and needs and instant noodles are one of them. Most people cook their noodles in a pot over a stove top. But what if you don’t have a pot or a stove? You use Sir Microwave!
When you live in a dorm, you don’t typically own a set of pots and pans so you’d opt for the next best thing: the microwave. But do your noodles taste the same as when you cook them on a stove? Probably not. Many instant noodle packets don’t even have microwave instructions! The satisfying, chewy texture is lost and is replaced with soggy, mushy noodles if you choose to follow the instructions on the packages! That sounds like a waste of good noodles to me. So how do you avoid that? After a whole year of midnight noodles with my high school roommate, we developed the optimal method for making a nice bowl of noodles for the heart and soul. And now, I would like to share it with all of you!
To start off you should keep these in mind:
Have a bowl with you!
Regardless of whether or not your noodles come in a cup or packet, you will want to use a microwavable bowl for it. Avoid paper or plastic ones!
Bring gloves or a towel to the microwave!
The bowl will be very hot from spending about 12-minutes in a food sauna, so having gloves or a towel will help to mitigate the heat. Using hoodie sleeves may work just as well, or fail entirely if the fabric is too thin. Test it out first before actually holding your noodle bowl or you may drop it!
Let’s do this recipe style!
Duration: 15 minutes
You will need:
- A Bowl (7-inch diameter is good for most packaged noodles)
- A Fork or Chopsticks
- A Microwave
- Water
- Instant Noodles (cup or packet)
- A Colander (optional)
- Scissors (optional)
- A Spoon (optional)
Procedure
-
Boil water in the microwave. This will typically take 5-7 minutes
-
Do not forget this step! This is a step that is listed for cooking instant noodles in a pot, but is completely disregarded in the steps to cook it in a microwave for most (if any) noodle instructions! You may use hot water to shorten the microwave boiling time.
-
Put the noodles in the bowl
-
If you are working with cup noodles, get those noodles out of the cup and put it in the bowl! The 7-inch diameter bowl was suggested as it is the perfect size for the largest noodle disk I can find: the Shin-Ramyun packet.
-
Microwave for 2-2.5 minutes
-
Go check out another Her Campus article while waiting for your noodles.
-
Open the microwave and put soup and condiment packets (if any) and then flip the noodles over
-
Microwave for another 2-2.5 minutes then remove from the microwave with safe lifting practices
-
When exercising safe lifting practices, make sure that your hands are covered with an insulating material of some kind and that there is no one engaging in horseplay around you. You don’t want to drop your noodles!
-
If a soup packet was added, skip step 6.
-
Strain the noodles if making dry noodles (for example Indomie Mi Goreng) and return to bowl
-
Add the flavor and condiment packets and mix.
-
If you want to warm it up a little more, pop it in the microwave again for 15 seconds.
-
-
Give it a little stir, and enjoy your noodles!
My all-time favorite instant noodles are from my home country, Indonesia, called Indomie. What’s yours?
Share this knowledge with other noodle enthusiasts you know, and maybe even have a midnight noodle party with them. Why double a 10-minute procedure by adding more steps in the cooking process? If it’s all for the sake of a better tasting meal, just make your noodles the right way in the microwave to maximize the quality of your instant noodle experience for instant gratification. Of course, remember to eat them in moderation and balance it out with other foods because a packet of carbs will not keep you going! So share a nood and make a friend, it goes a long way.