10 Noodle Recipes Made in 30 Minutes or Less for Quick and Easy Mid-Week Meals

Our 10 noodle recipes made in 30 minutes or less for quick and easy mid-week meals include speedy recipes for everything from Korean instant ramen noodles and ginger scallion noodles in ten minutes to recipes for Thai rad na gai charred rice noodles with chicken and gravy and Cambodian mee katang for Cantonese style noodles in 25 minutes.

Terence and I are so busy right now we’re doing our own thing for dinner tonight, as we’ll both finish work late and we’ll each feel like eating different things. Terence will probably make a healthy salad, while I’ll feel like quick comfort food, which for me means easy noodles that I can make in next to no time.

For those of you thinking the same, I’ve pulled together this compilation of 10 noodle recipes made in 30 minutes or less for quick mid-week meals. In addition to instant ramen noodles, ginger scallion noodles, Thai rad na gai and Cambodian mee katang, the round-up includes recipes for Hokkien noodles, mee Kola, and Cambodian lort cha.

If you’re completely exhausted, you’ll want to hone in on these 10-15 minute noodle recipes, including this spicy peanut butter noodles recipe, Terence’s Korean instant ramen noodles recipe for jazzing up Nongshim Shin Ramyun, and my best instant ramen noodles recipe plus my (now not so) secret formula to upgrading instant noodles.

Before I tell you more about these noodle recipes made in 30 minutes or less, I have a favour to ask. Grantourismo is reader-funded. If you’ve enjoyed our recipes or other content on the site, please consider supporting Grantourismo. You could buy us a coffee and we’ll use that donation to buy cooking ingredients for recipe testing or contribute to our epic original Cambodian cuisine history and cookbook on Patreon.

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You could also shop our Grantourismo store on Society6 for gifts for foodies, including fun reusable cloth face masks designed with Terence’s images. Now let me tell you all about these noodle recipes made in 30 minutes or less.

Noodle Recipes Made in 30 Minutes or Less for Quick and Easy Mid-Week Meals

Thai Rad Na Gai Recipe for Charred Rice Noodles with Chicken

This Thai rad na gai recipe for charred rice noodles with chicken and gravy makes a Thai-Chinese street food dish more popular with Thais than pad Thai and it tops my list of 10 noodle recipes made in 30 minutes or less as it’s just so incredibly delicious.

This recipe, adapted from chef David Thompson’s Thai Street Food cookbook, makes a rad na that tastes exactly like our Bangkok favourite. Use a seasoned carbon steel wok for charring the noodles. Fresh rice noodles stick more than reconstituted dried noodles. If they stick, splash a little cooking oil into the wok.

The chef’s recipe calls for pouring the gravy over the noodles – ‘rad na’ means ‘on top’ after all – but I like to return the charred noodles to the wok and combine them with the chicken, greens and gravy to coat the noodles completely. Made in 25 minutes.

Thai Rad Na Gai Recipe for Charred Rice Noodles with Chicken and Gravy

Spicy Peanut Butter Noodles Recipe for a Quick, Easy Bowl of Noodles

This spicy peanut butter noodles recipe makes an easy bowl of noodles that’s perfect for a fast lunch or quick mid-week dinner and it’s another of my top noodle recipes made in 30 minutes or less as it’s just too easy.

If you’re in the mood for satay but don’t have time to pound pastes and grind peanuts, this spicy peanut butter sauce should satisfy your cravings and it’s a cinch to make. It’s also versatile – use whatever noodles and toppings you have at hand –  and fast. They’re made in 15 minutes.

If you’re a lover of noodle dishes – and dry noodles doused in sauces, in contrast to wet noodles, which are essentially noodle soups and curried noodles – then you should enjoy tucking into a bowl of these spicy peanut butter noodles, garnished with crunchy pan-roasted peanuts, crispy fried garlic, sliced red chillies, and fragrant coriander or cilantro. 

Spicy Peanut Butter Noodles Recipe for a Quick, Easy and Tasty Bowl of Noodles

 

Cambodian Mee Katang Recipe for Quick Cantonese Style Noodles

My Cambodian mee katang recipe makes a delicious Chinese-Cambodian dish of wok-fried wide rice noodles, stir-fried with marinated pork, crunchy carrots and Chinese broccoli, and scrambled eggs.

Called ‘mee Kontang’ in Khmer, which means Cantonese noodles, but pronounced ‘mee Katang’, these charred noodles are easy to make and super versatile and are another of my 10 noodle recipes made in 30 minutes or less as they’re also super tasty. While not as ubiquitous in Cambodia as noodle dishes such as nom banh chok and kuy teav, you’ll still spot mee Katang at street food carts.

A descendant of the Cantonese dish chow fun, mee Katang is made with the same fresh, flat, wide rice noodles called hor fun, stir-fried in light soy, dark soy and oyster sauce to give the noodles colour as much as flavour. Made in 25 minutes.

Cambodian Mee Katang Recipe for Quick and Easy Cantonese Style Noodles

 

Korean Spicy Noodles Recipe for Stir-Fried Udon with Kimchi

Our Korean spicy noodles recipe makes stir-fried udon noodles with kimchi, bacon and fried eggs. While the Japanese fried udon noodle dish, yaki udon, has a soy based sauce, this Korean-style yaki udon heats things up with kimchi, the spicy Korean chilli paste called gochujang and Korean chilli flakes gochugaru. We pop fried eggs on top.

If you’re a lover of Japanese udon noodles but prefer the spice of Korean food, you’re going to love this Korean spicy noodles recipe, although it’s a dish for pork lovers as much as lovers of noodles and spice.

If bacon and ground pork is too much pork, omit one. This versatile noodle dish also works with seafood, chicken, pork, or vegetables. Made in 15 minutes.

Korean Spicy Noodles Recipe for Stir-Fried Udon with Kimchi, Bacon and Fried Eggs

 

Ginger Scallion Sauce Recipe for Ginger Scallion Noodles

This ginger scallion sauce recipe makes the ginger scallion noodles that were a much-copied Momofuku homage to the classic Southern Chinese sauce that chef David Chang and food writer Francis Lam popularised over a decade ago.

Terence has been making these delicious ginger scallion noodles with the sauce ever since – well before their recent comeback – and you should too. They’re super-quick to make and take around 10 minutes.

We knew this as the Momofuku ginger scallion sauce for ginger scallion noodles from chef David Chang’s Momofuku: A Cookbook published in 2009. Chang said it was “the secret sauce” served up in Cantonese joints in New York City. The sauce and noodle dish made a comeback in 2021, but disappointingly, the origins weren’t always shared. 

Ginger Scallion Sauce Recipe for Ginger Scallion Noodles – The Momofuku Homage to a Chinese Classic

Cambodian Lort Cha Recipe for Stir Fried Rice Pin Noodles

This authentic Cambodian lort cha recipe makes the popular market meal of rice pin noodles stir-fried with garlic, bean sprouts and scallions or chives in a sauce of palm sugar, fish sauce and dark soy sauce, and it’s another of my top noodle recipes made in 30 minutes or less as this is just such a comforting dish.

They’re typically eaten in Cambodia with a soft fried egg, a liberal squirt of chilli sauce, and a chive cake or two, which lort cha cooks fry up on the same pan. They’re made in around 15 minutes.

‘Authentic’ is a loaded term, of course and here I’m using it to describe a Cambodian-Chinese dish of Cantonese provenance. What makes it authentic then? It makes the lort cha cooked and sold at markets in Cambodia – not the kind I’ve spotted on a few food sites that have a mile-long list of ingredients. 

Authentic Cambodian Lort Cha Recipe for Market Style Stir Fried Rice Pin Noodles

Mee Kola Recipe for the Vegetarian Noodles of Cambodia’s Kola People

Mee Kola translates to Kola noodles – ‘mee’ are noodles and this is a noodle dish of the Kola, also known as the Kula or Gula people, a Cambodian ethnic minority people who originated from Burma (now Myanmar) and settled in Pailin in northwest Cambodia to mine gem stones.

Our recipe for these vegetarian noodles is modelled on a dish made by a Kola family here in Siem Reap. It’s made with rice stick noodles stir-fried in soy sauce, served with papaya cucumber pickle, bean sprouts, crunchy vegetables, fragrant herbs, and crushed peanuts, which you combine altogether with the dressing in your bowl.

This is another of my top noodle recipes made in 30 minutes or less as it’s super easy and makes a fantastic single-bowl lunch. Made in 30 minutes.

Mee Kola Recipe for the Vegetarian Noodles of Cambodia’s Kola People

Hokkien Noodles Recipe With Chinese Barbecue Pork

Terence’s Hokkien Noodles recipe with char siu pork or Chinese barbecue pork is an old favourite inspired by a dish from legendary Australian chef Neil Perry and it’s another of my 10 noodle recipes made in 30 minutes or less as they’re deliciously addictive.

It’s hard to believe but Terence has been cooking this for 24 years, after trying a Hokkien noodles dish cooked up by legendary Australian chef Neil Perry in 1998. Terence’s version is modified from the chef’s dish that was published in his first cookbook, Rockpool.

Terence shared it here on Grantourismo as part of a series of recipes using char siu pork or Chinese barbecue pork. This is another noodle dish best made in a nicely seasoned carbon steel wok to get a little smoky flavour in the dish. It’s made in 25 minutes.

Hokkien Noodles Recipe with Chinese Barbecue Pork or Char Siu Pork

 

Best Instant Ramen Noodles Recipe + Secret to Upgrading Instant Noodles

My best instant ramen noodles recipe for a quick, easy, satisfying meal begins with discarding those tiny packets of seasoning and spice paste and making your own sauce, a popular Southeast Asian dipping sauce. Add crunch with a sprinkle of fried shallots or fried garlic and fragrance from fresh herbs and you’ve got delicious instant noodles.

It is so easy to make that it really doesn’t need a recipe and like all good instant ramen recipes, it’s versatile. If you follow my now-not-so-secret formula to upgrading instant ramen, you’ll always make satisfying instant noodles. Use your favourite noodles.

I recommend MAMA instant noodles, a Thai brand that Thai friends got me onto, or Nongshim Shin Ramyun Noodles. For fish sauce, we like Megachef, one of the most consistent fish sauces available internationally. These noodles are made in 10 minutes.

Best Instant Ramen Noodles Recipe PLUS Secret Formula to Upgrading Instant Noodles

 

Korean Instant Ramen Noodles Recipe for Jazzing Up Nongshim Shin Ramyun

Terence’s Korean instant ramen noodles recipe jazzes up Nongshim Shin Ramyun, which are apparently South Korean’s most popular Korean instant ramen noodles, with melt-in-your-mouth slices of char siu pork, crisp Chinese greens, blanched bean sprouts, a boiled egg, deep-fried shallots, and our heady homemade chilli oil.

Terence uses Nongshim’s Shin Black Noodle Soup, which he cooks for four minutes, having added about half the soup powder first, and blanched any extras that need cooking before that, such as the Asian leafy green vegetables and bean sprouts. He doesn’t use the vegetable flakes packet at all, as he doesn’t like the texture.

Terence likes to add a squirt of one of the original Thai Sriracha sauces but you could always add a squeeze of the American-Vietnamese Rooster Sriracha brand. This dish is made in 15 minutes.

Best Korean Instant Ramen Noodles Recipe – How to Jazz Up Nongshim Shin Ramyun

Please do let us know in the comments below if you make any of our 10 noodle recipes made in 30 minutes or less, as we’d love to hear how they turn out for you.