Easy Homemade Instant Noodle Soup (Vegan, GF)

Why not make your own homemade instant noodle soup? It's so easy and as you can add lots of fresh veggies, it's so much healthier than buying a noodle soup. This nutritious vegan soup is perfect for an easy light meal at home. Use rice noodles to keep it gluten free too!

Soup is the perfect meal for winter, but you'd rarely catch me eating a bought instant soup. Oh no, I like to make my own soup, and even an instant soup can be quick and easy to make.

This homemade instant soup is healthy, vegan and filling as well. It's perfect if you want a healthy lunch and have a few minutes free to prepare it. Yes, you only need a few minutes to make it.

The only way in which making this homemade instant noodle soup is more time-consuming than making up a shop-bought instant soup, is that you have to spend a couple of minutes chopping up vegetables and squeezing a lime. But how long does that take most people?

Basically, this homemade instant soup is perfect as an everyday easy recipe, the kind of thing that's perfect for a simple lunch at home but also ideal for a quick meal after a busy day at work.

I have to be honest, the idea for making a homemade instant noodle soup was inspired by The River Cottage. I don't actually have any River Cottage recipe books despite my large collection. However, I'd seen a few of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's instant soup recipes online and decided to create my own version.

The recipe I created was inspired by Fearnley-Whittingstall's hot, sweet and sour noodles. I made it much less sweet, used a different selection of vegetables, more chilli, fresh ginger and added lots of fresh coriander for extra flavour too.

It was definitely a success, very tasty with crunchy vegetables and a light oriental tasting broth. I've made it a few times and it's always popular.

Ingredients for homemade instant noodle soup

To make this simple noodle soup you'll need:

• Dried thin noodles - I choose thin rice noodles as they rehydrate more quickly than thicker noodles and there is less chance of them being under cooked. It doesn't matter whether you use egg or rice noodles although with rice noodles you can keep this recipe gluten free. I find that even noodles that say you should boil them are properly rehydrated after standing in the hot soup.
• 1 chilli pepper - Decide how hot you want the soup to be when deciding what kind of chilli pepper to use. If the pepper is very hot you can remove the seeds. It's up to you.
• Vegetables - You can vary the vegetables. I've used a mixture of  mushrooms, baby sweetcorn, sugar snap peas and spring onions
• Root ginger - I like to use fresh root ginger and either grate it or just cut it into battons or thin slices.
• Vegetable stock - It is easiest to use a powdered bouillon and sprinkle it over the soup before pouring on hot water from the kettle. However, if you have a homemade vegetable stock you could heat that up and then pour it over the soup.
• Soy sauce - This is for seasoning and to add an oriental flavour.
• Lime - This adds a little sourness and is perfect if you like a sour note in your soup.
• Coriander leaves - I love to top the soup with this. It adds flavour and freshness.

How do you make instant noodle soup?

Making homemade instant noodle soup could not be easier. Basically, you layer all the ingredients in a bowl with the noodles at the bottom and the veggies on top. Boil the kettle and as soon as it boils, pour the hot water on top.

After three minutes, stir the soup to loosen the noodles a little and then leave it for about 3 more minutes.

Can you adapt this soup?

Yes, it is very easy to adapt. You can vary the vegetables for a slightly different flavour. You can add a few different condiments to alter the flavour too. Why not add a little chilli oil or sesame oil?

If you have leftover rice you can change this soup into an oriental instant rice soup. Just put the cooked rice in the bottom of bowl instead of the noodles.

Instead of the soy sauce you can use fish sauce for more of a Thai flavour.

Can you prep this instant soup in advance?

Yes, this is a great soup for prepping in advance. Just don't add the hot water! I would suggest putting the ingredients in jars and storing the jars in the fridge. When you want to eat the soup, just pour the boiling water on top and wait five minutes.

You can then take the jars to work and add the hot water there.

Can you reheat it?

As this is an instant soup, it doesn't really make sense to make it and then not eat it immediately. If you left it and ate it later, the noodles would continue to absorb liquid and could taste overcooked.

More Soup Recipes

If you like soup then you can find lots more recipes in my easy homemade soups collection! Or why not check out one of these soups:

• Salmon miso soup with soba noodles
• Green lentil and coriander soup
• Spiced celeriac soup

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Do let me know if you make this easy homemade noodle soup or any of my other recipes. I love to get feedback from readers.

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