Best Korean Instant Ramen Noodles Recipe – How to Jazz Up Your Nongshim Shin Ramyun. noodle recipes made in 30 minutes or less. Copyright © 2022 Terence Carter / Grantourismo. All Rights Reserved.

What to Cook this Week from Mexican Tortilla Soup and Korean Ramen Noodles to Russian Beef Stew

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What to Cook this Week, from Mexican tortilla soup and jazzed-up Korean instant ramen noodles to a hearty Russian beef stew. What to Cook this Week is a newish weekly recipe series we publish every Monday with weeknight meal ideas from the Grantourismo recipe archives. Suggestions include easy midweek dishes, ideas for upcoming holidays, and recipes that we’re testing that we’d love you to try.

It’s hard to believe there’s just six days to go until Christmas. Last week Terence was busy baking sourdough in the new toaster oven and roasting batches of spicy peanuts to nibble on over the festive season, while I was making homemade edible Christmas gifts out of our jars of pickles, hot sauces and jams.

This week our focus is on cooking, recipe testing, photo shoots, and writing before we take a little break, so that you still have plenty to cook and read while we’re relaxing between the Christmas and New Year. It will be our first holiday at home in many years.

This will be our last What to Cook edition until January when What to Cook this Week returns on 3 January 2022 and What to Cook this Weekend returns on 7 January 2022.

So when it comes to what to cook this week, we’re keeping things even more simple than last week – soups, stews and instant ramen noodles – as we expect you’ll be busy cooking ahead what you can for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day meals and your holidays with loved-ones.

If you haven’t dropped by in a while, welcome to our newish What to Cook this Week series, where every Monday I dig into our recipe archive – which is heaving with hundreds of recipes from around the world, many dating back to 2010 when we launched Grantourismo – for easy midweek dinner recipe ideas for you.

In What to Cook this Week, I share meal suggestions for those nights when you’re feeling like you don’t want to spend a whole of time in the kitchen, as well as ideas for meals requiring a bit more effort, when you’re happy to while away the evening in the kitchen with loved-ones and a bottle of wine and good music in the background.

We’ll also share recipes that we’re planning to cook here in our Cambodian kitchen in the week ahead. And if you’re interested, we’d also love to offer the occasional recipe that we’re developing for our cookbooks and invite you to test it out and let us know how the dish turned out for you.

Before you scroll down to browse our suggestions for what to cook this week, if you didn’t check our home page before you landed here, we’ve been publishing Christmas recipe collections over the last week that you might also like, including our best Christmas cocktail recipes, best dip recipes for crackers and crudités for festive parties, Christmas day breakfasts, best Christmas starters, best Christmas salads, and best desserts for Christmas.

Every day between now and Christmas, we’ll be adding more recipes and recipe compilations for Christmas day brunch, Christmas finger food and nibbles, Christmas mains and sides, and ideas for Christmas leftovers, so do bookmark this page, drop by and visit again, or subscribe (bottom of the site).

Now, I have a favour to ask, before you scroll down to our ideas for what to cook this week. Grantourismo is reader-funded. If you’ve enjoyed our recipes, please consider supporting our work by buying us a coffee. We’ll put that coffee money toward cooking ingredients for recipe testing.

Another way to support the site is by making a small donation to our epic Cambodian cuisine history and cookbook on Patreon or purchase something on Amazon, such as these James Beard award-winning cookbooks, cookbooks by Australian chefs, classic cookbooks for serious cooks, cookbooks for culinary travellers, travel books to inspire wanderlust, gifts for Asian food lovers, picnic lovers and travellers who love photography. We may earn a small commission but you won’t pay any extra.

And lastly, you could use our links to book accommodation, rent a car or campervan or motorhome, buy travel insurance, or book a tour on Klook or Get Your Guide. Again, we may earn a small commission but you won’t pay extra. Lastly, you could also shop our Grantourismo store at Society 6 for plenty of great gifts designed with Terence’s photography. Now let’s give you some ideas as to what to cook this week.

What to Cook this Week from

Monday Night – Mexican Sopa de Tortilla or Tortilla Soup

There are few things easier to prepare than soup and while this Mexican sopa de tortilla or tortilla soup is very simple to make and takes around 30 minutes, it’s easy to make a bad version of it. We’ve had plenty of terrible versions that are either too weak, or have too many tomatoes, or are not seasoned enough.

This sopa de tortilla recipe makes the best tortilla soup. It’s a soup that Terence has been making for decades. While we can’t recall the first recipe he used that he made for many years – it was probably from Diana Kennedy’s tome on Mexican cuisine, The Art of Mexican Cooking – he enhanced his recipe after we did an excellent Mexican cooking class in San Miguel de Allende.

If you don’t have chicken stock in the freezer, use a quality store-bought stock. After the stock, the next key ingredients are the chillies, which you’ll probably have if you regularly cook Mexican food.

Serve with fresh coriander, lime wedges, avocado slices and crunchy tortilla chips. Wash it all down with classic margaritas or micheladas.

Sopa de Tortilla or Tortilla Soup Recipe from San Miguel de Allende, Mexico

If you don’t think the tortilla soup will fill you up, then make a bowl of this authentic Mexican guacamole recipe for a genuine guacamole of the kind a Mexican grandma might – the kind that’s made table-side at good restaurants in Mexico. It’s all about the creamy luscious texture, bright green colour and full flavour of perfectly ripe avocados.

Authentic Mexican Guacamole Recipe Just Like Your Mexican Abuela Would Make

 

Tuesday Night – Spanish Gazpacho

This Spanish gazpacho recipe is the best if you’re busy and tired and don’t have time or are not in the mood to cook. Gazpacho is one of the easiest soups to make, as it’s just a matter of chopping the ingredients and sticking them in a blender.

While gazpacho is a cold tomato soup that’s fantastic in summer, which will suit our southern hemisphere readers. If you’re in the chilly northern hemisphere, you can also heat this soup up for a warming winter vegetable broth.

This recipe makes the Andalusian style of gazpacho from southern Spain of the kind that you’ll find in cities such as Seville. The recipe results in a vibrant orange gazpacho that tastes like a garden salad.

If you’re the kind of person not satisfied with a soup, then make this Spanish potato tortilla to go with it. That will fill you up and it’s another dish that is delicious no matter what the season.

Best Gazpacho Recipe for an Authentic Andalusian Style Gazpacho from Southern Spain

 

Wednesday Night – Burmese Chicken Coconut Noodle Soup

This ohn no khao swe recipe makes Myanmar’s beloved Burmese chicken coconut noodle soup, a distant relation to Chiang Mai’s khao soi.

It’s a soup that Terence has been making since we first became enamoured with the dish in Yangon on our first trip to the country many years ago. Terence’s recipe combines the best of the many renditions we’ve sampled on our Myanmar travels.

Ohn no khao swè, which you’ll also see written as ohn no khauk sway, on no khauk swe, ohn no khau sway, and ohn no khau swe – consists of egg noodles in an aromatic chicken curry soup with a coconut milk base, typically garnished with crunchy fried noodles, boiled eggs, shallots, fried garlic, dried chilli, lime, coriander (cilantro), and sometimes fried chickpea fritters.

If you don’t have any stock in the freezer, use a store-bought stock but add ginger to the paste. This soup will require a little more work than the two above, but it’s worth it, as it will fill your home with wonderful spicy aromas.

Ohn No Khao Swe Recipe for Burmese Chicken Coconut Noodle Soup

Thursday Night – Korean Instant Ramen Noodles

Arguably the easiest meal to make is one from instant ramen noodles. Terence’s Korean instant ramen noodles recipe jazzes up Nongshim Shin Ramyun, which are the best instant ramen noodles as far as he’s concerned.

Terence likes the spicy soup seasoning of Nongshim’s Shin Ramyun, especially the Shin Black Noodle Soup, so all he does is add slices of pork, blanched bean sprouts and Chinese greens, a boiled egg, chilli oil, and fried shallots.

Instant ramen noodles get a bad rap as fast food, but as I said in my post on my now not-so secret formula for upgrading instant ramen noodles, all you have to do is take the dried noodles, discard the little packets of dehydrated veg and seasoning, and add your favourite ingredients to take instant ramen to the next level.

As for condiments, we use Terence’s homemade chilli oil for some extra oomph but a dash of Sriracha also gets the tastebuds tingling. We prefer the original Thai Sriracha sauces but the American-Vietnamese Rooster Sriracha brand will also do the trick.

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

 

Friday Night – Russian Beef Stew

Merry Christmas Eve! Or Happy Holidays if you don’t celebrate Christmas. If you celebrate Christmas with a feast on Christmas Eve, then you probably have Friday night dinner planned.

If you don’t and you’re going to be cooking for Christmas Day or wrapping gifts, then join us in putting on a pot of this comforting Russian beef stew, which is one of my favourite Russian family recipes alongside beef Stroganoff.

My traditional Russian beef stew recipe makes solyanka, a delicious hearty stew, or heavy soup if you prefer, that’s a little sour and a little sweet. Invented to use leftovers, solyanka is a one-pot dish that is filling and nourishing.

That should fill you up nicely. If you’re not in the mood for Russian food, we have more warming winter stew recipes here. We’ll also be sharing more ideas for Christmas dishes over coming days.

Traditional Russian Beef Stew Recipe for Solyanka, a Medieval Dish for Modern Times

 

Please do let us know if you’ve made any of our What to Cook this Week recipes in the comments below as we’d love to get your feedback and hear how our recipes turned out for you. We’re also eager to hear what you think of the series and if you have any suggestions.

And just a reminder: this is our last What to Cook edition until January next year when What to Cook this Week returns on 3 January 2022 and What to Cook this Weekend returns on 7 January 2022.

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A travel and food writer who has experienced over 70 countries and written for The Guardian, Australian Gourmet Traveller, Feast, Delicious, National Geographic Traveller, Conde Nast Traveller, Travel+Leisure Southeast Asia, DestinAsian, TIME, CNN, The Independent, The Telegraph, Sunday Times Travel Magazine, AFAR, Wanderlust, International Traveller, Get Lost, Four Seasons Magazine, Fah Thai, Sawasdee, and more, as well as authored more than 40 guidebooks for Lonely Planet, DK, Footprint, Rough Guides, Fodors, Thomas Cook, and AA Guides.

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