Quick rice noodles

I recently discovered that I can use a microwave to properly cook pasta and noodles. Since I don't consider microwaving real cooking, I decided to tag them No-cook meals.

I tried another version of soupy noodles last week, which wasn't that tasty, to be honest. This one is still not the typical rice noodles dish you can get from a southeast Asian restaurant. I've lived in Malaysia for 6 years so I'm well aware of the difference in taste. It's still yummy and I was very happy with how it turned out.

This is a quick fix that took me less than 20 minutes and I had it for breakfast. I used a soup base product that contains fish sauce because my kitchen setup is very limited, I'm pretty sure you can make a vegetable soup that tastes good with the right ingredients and tools.

What I had

The thinnest rice noodles I could find in the store, Thai style soup base with fish sauce, coriander/cilantro (I don't know how to tell them apart), canned chickpea, dried shiitake mushroom bits

Optional: hoisin sauce, crushed red pepper, black pepper

How I made it

1. Soak rice noodles in cold water for 10 minutes

2. Soak dried mushroom bits in hot water for 10 minutes

- If you use a whole mushroom, it'd be better to soak them overnight in a refrigerator to make it soft

3. Soup:

- In a microwavable container, put the mushrooms along with the water they were in

- Add the base sauce as you like

- Add chickpeas (drained and rinsed)

* The soup should taste saltier than your preference because rice noodles aren't seasoned at all

* Add hoisin sauce, crushed red pepper, and ground black pepper to give an extra kick

4. Microwave the soup for a minute or two

5. Rice noodles:

- In a microwavable container, put the rice noodles and hot water

- Microwave without cover for one minute

* You can also leave the noodles in hot water without heating to get them ready. Noodles are already cooked and just need softening. The instruction says 1 minute of boiling so few extra minutes in hot water should do the trick.

- Rinse the noodles in cold water and drain

6. Place the noodles in a bowl and pour in warm/hot soup with mushrooms and chickpeas

7. Top with coriander leaves and enjoy!