This week’s recipe is DIY Instant Soup. Have you made a recipe so good, it gets added to your weekly meal rotation, then you make it so often you eventually get sick of it? Yeah, that’s going to happen with me and this soup. I can’t begin to tell you how comforting DIY Instant Soup is on a frigid, butt-ass day!!
There’s a decent amount of prep work needed to make this recipe, but the time you’ll save during the rest of the week will be worth it!
I recently saw an article that said Chicago is currently colder than the planet Mars. To that I say, noooooo thank you! Portland drops to cold temperatures too but we don’t experience -30 degrees, that shit’s crazy bonkers cold!
Speaking of articles, I saw another one which made me laugh my ass off. The article was titled Fargo Man Arrested For Clearing Snow With Flame-thrower. The article continues…Fox stated that he was simply fed up with battling the elements and that he did not possess the willpower necessary to move four billion tons of white bull shit. The article turned out to be fake, but after living through 37 Illinois winters, I thought the idea was genius. Real talk – if I owned a flame-thrower, I would be tempted to try it!
Luckily, the weather is getting warmer in Portland so while Midwesterners continue to freeze, we’re experiencing temperatures in the mid 40’s to low 50’s. Although summer is far off for the majority of us, we can all take comfort knowing winter solstice is upon us. Our days will eventually grow longer with the promise of summer around the corner.
However, winter solstice is all fine and good but it doesn’t help the fact we’re still freezing our butts off! Here comes my DIY Instant Soup to the rescue!
You may look at my photography and think, why didn’t you store your instant soup in cute mason jars? Every other food blogger stores their soup in cute jars, why not you?
Good question. Answers…
- My kitchen is being remodeled so half my kitchen equipment and dishes are still unpacked. This includes my cute mason jars.
- I currently have no idea which box holds my mason jars and I’m too lazy to go through them all.
- I have an easier time stirring and eating soup out of the plastic containers, wide mouth mason jars are never wide enough.
- The mason jar must rest outside of the fridge for 10 minutes before you add hot water. If you add hot water to a cold mason jar, the glass can crack. Ain’t nobody got time for that shit! The plastic containers can be used immediately out of the fridge.
- Plastic containers stack on top of each other which saves coveted space in my refrigerator.
Am I afraid the boiling hot water will melt the plastic? I was, but the plastic containers held up to the test, they worked wonderfully. You can use whichever container you find most convenient!
A quick side note about my photography, the noodles in the photos look janky AF. Normally the noodles look wonderfully plump instead of the mushy mass you see at the bottom of the container. I was multitasking so I lost track of what I was doing and overcooked the noodles, which resulted in mushy, unappetizing, noodle-y disaster. The noodles tasted fine so I used them rather than throw them out for the sake of better-looking photos.
Undoubtedly the prep work for this recipe will take you a couple of hours to finish but the result is worth it. Trust me. You’ll spend a couple hours (maybe less) putting them together but you’ll end up with a quick satisfying meal for the next 5 days.
The DIY Instant Soup has the following components:
- Bouillon chicken paste (I added mild curry paste too)
- Noodles (you can use any type you want)
- Thinly sliced vegetables
- Cubed chicken
- Fresh flavor enhancers like cilantro and parsley are optional
Can you use bouillon powder or cubes in place of the paste? You can, but the broth will have a gritty texture to it. Bouillon chicken paste dissolves better in hot water which is why I chose it. I have mild curry paste hanging out in my refrigerator too so I plopped 1/2 a teaspoon into my soup. The soup won’t taste like curry yet it gives the broth a fuller, richer flavor. I used 1 1/2 teaspoons of bouillon and 1/2 teaspoon of curry paste per soup. I felt 2 teaspoons per soup was the perfect ratio, 3 being too salty.
Important note: the chicken and noodles MUST be fully cooked beforehand. Yes, you’re adding hot water to the soup when you’re ready to eat, but the hot water won’t be hot enough to cook either ingredient. Please don’t consume raw chicken and undercooked noodles, precook them properly beforehand.
The recipe is highly adaptable so have fun playing around with different flavored pastes and vegetables! The DIY Instant Soup recipe below makes 10 individual soups – 1 for both me and Kieran Monday thru Friday. You’ll want to use more or fewer ingredients depending on how many soups you’re making. You can additionally use more or fewer ingredients depending on how hardy you want your soup. The ingredients I list in the recipe below are the perfect hardiness for 10 soups.
I’m obsessed with DIY Instant Soup not only because of the taste but because if the convenience. Approx 2 hours on Saturday or Sunday results in Kieran and I having delicious and satisfying hot soup every day of the work week. DIY Instant Soup not only tastes amazing but it’s extremely comforting on a cold winter afternoon. ESPECIALLY if you work in an office that feels like the Antarctic, you’ll appreciate this tasty soup.
Thanks for stopping by,
Christina
DIY Instant Soup
Ingredients
- 4 skinless chicken breasts, cooked and cubed
- 8 oz jar of Better Than Bouillon Chicken Paste
- 1 jar of Mild Curry Paste
- 1 large bag (or two small bags) of egg noodles cooked and drained
Bean sprouts
- 2 carrots, shredded
- 1 red pepper, thinly sliced
- 2-3 celery stalks, thinly sliced
- ¼ -1/2 cup diced white onion (optional)
- Fresh herbs like cilantro or parsley.
Instructions
Cook the chicken and noodles first:
- I season my chicken with salt, pepper, dried oregano, and dried thyme. I cook the chicken at 400 degrees for approx 20 minutes or until the breasts are fully cooked. Once the chicken has cooled I cut them into cubes.
- Meanwhile, I cook the noodles according to the package. When the noodles are al dente, I drain them in a colander, rinse them with cool water, and allow them to dry while I begin slicing my vegetables
Slice the vegetables:
- The vegetables will only warm up in the soup, not cook, so the key is to slice them as thinly as possible so they heat thoroughly and soften.
- Normally by the time I'm finished slicing and dicing, the chicken and noodles are ready to be handled.
Assembly:
- Start by putting 1½ teaspoons of bouillon paste and ½ teaspoon of curry paste into each container. I tried 2 teaspoons of bouillon paste and 1 teaspoon of curry paste before, but it was too salty.
- Top the paste with as many noodles as you like.
- Next do your best to evenly divide the bean sprouts, shredded carrot, red pepper, celery, and ½ cup of diced onion between your containers.
- Next top the vegetables with the cubed chicken.
- Finally, add a small handful of fresh herbs like cilantro or parsley.
- Cover your containers and store them in your fridge up to 5-6 days.
Make DIY Instant Soup:
- Take the container out of the fridge and set it on the counter.
- Heat your water with whatever you have available, a microwave, stove, kettle ect. You'll want the water hot, almost to the point of boiling. Pour the hot water into your container until your container is full and the ingredients are covered. Top the container loosely with the lid and set a timer for 5 minutes.
- After 5 minutes stir the soup for approx 30 seconds so the paste can distribute throughout the soup.
- Gobble down that tasty, tasty soup!