Simple Homemade Noodles Recipe for Kids

As a fan of Chinese dramas, I recently discovered “longevity noodles” which are given to people on their birthdays. It inspired me to try making my own noodles at home. That would be one less thing we eat that contains preservatives. After watching several Youtube videos, here’s my Simple Homemade Noodles Recipe for Kids.

Homemade Noodles Ingredients:

Dough

250g plain flour (extra for dusting)

80mls water

Pinch of salt

 

Stir fry

A quarter of 1 small carrot – grated

A quarter of 1 small courgette (zucchini) – grated

A quarter of 1 small red onion – diced

Pinch of salt

Dash of ground ginger

 

Cooking time

15 – 20 minutes

 

Prep time

Up to 1 hour

Serves 2 kids (or 1 adult who eats like a bird + 1 child)

 

Method to make simple homemade noodles:

How to make the homemade noodles

1. Measure the flour into a mixing bowl, add the salt and mix.
2. Make a well in the middle of the flour and pour in the water
3. Using your hand (already washed) mix the water into the flour. The mixture is not going to be sticky or wet. Because the water is roughly a third of the amount of flour, all the flour would not mix in immediately. You just need to keep pressing the dry dough to the flour until it all mixes in. The texture would be similar to play doh that can easily
4. Cover the bowl the dough is in and leave in a warm place for about 10 minutes
5. Take out the dough, knead it for a few seconds and try to pull apart. If it crumbles easily, leave it for another 10 minutes. With my 4yo who needed my attention, I ended up leaving it for an hour.
6. Knead the dough for a few seconds more. You can get your kids to do the kneading. Punching the dough sounds like a fun activity too.
7. Once you try to stretch the dough and it does not immediately crumble, it is ready to be rolled
8. I found this dough to not be soft like bread dough, so it does need some elbow grease when rolling. Try to roll the dough as thinly as you can get it
9. With regular dusting, roll the stretched dough and cut it thinly. Dusting prevents the dough from sticking when cutting and allows the strips to come apart.
10. As the noodles have been freshly made and do not contain any preservations or other chemicals, I find it is best to add it to a large pot of boiling water. I added a couple of drops of oil to the water to prevent the noodles from sticking together.
11. After about 10 minutes of boiling, the water has a cloudy colour to it. I decant the noodles into a colander and rinse with clean water to get rid of the excess starch. This step is my personal preference, you don’t have to follow it. None of the Youtube videos I watched did this.
12. I returned the noodles to the pot with a little bit of hot water to heat it up and a pinch of salt. I cooked the noodles for a few minutes only and it’s ready

 

Background

The thing I love about cooking is that there’s no right or wrong way. Each time you cook, you can make changes until you get the right taste for you.

The first time I attempted to make homemade noodles, I wanted to make egg noodles but I got the ratio of liquid to dry ingredients wrong. That’s why this time around, I opted for an even simpler recipe to help me get a feel for the dough texture. It is a simple homemade noodles recipe with no eggs, no milk and is relatively easy to make. However, this is one recipe that you should not try to take short cuts with.

On my first attempt, I used 500g of flour and ended up with too many noodles (they didn’t look as nice as the ones in the picture below but they were still edible). I divided the noodles into two and one part was kept for use another day.

Whilst cooking the first batch of noodles, I added a handful of baby spinach leaves to the noodles whilst the water was still boiling. To be honest, I didn’t like the taste of the spinach and neither did my daughter.

After cooking the second batch of noodles, I fried some kale leaves and added it to the noodles. It still tasted like something was missing.

 

How to make the stir-fry

So on this attempt, I went back to our favourite vegetables that have always been a winner in our home: carrots, courgette and onions. The only thing with the onions is that I have to dice the onions as finely as I can or on the days I’m open to crying, I grate them. This is because if my daughter sees the onions, she gets all stroppy and moans about how she hates onions. As long as she cannot identify the onions, it’s the most delicious meal to her.

Our go-to cooking oil is sunflower oil. I drizzled some on a hot frying pan and added the vegetables, constantly stirring for about 2 – 3 minutes. You don’t want to destroy the nutrients in the vegetables by frying them for much longer. I added a pinch of salt and a dash of ground ginger and stirred them in for a few seconds and it’s ready.

I dished the noodles onto a plate and served the stir-fry on top. Using a fork, I mixed the stir-fry into the noodles.

As we’re meat eaters, there was a piece of roast chicken to go with it.

This is the first dish that I’ve ever made in my entire life that can truly be called a vegetarian dish and it was delicious. To be honest, I never imagined that a dish that had no meat in it could be delicious. Even without the meat the noodles was very delicious and had a chewy texture (for lack of a better way to describe it).

If you do not like meat or don’t eat meat, you could add sardines for protein or even add mushrooms to your stir-fry. The possibilities are endless! You’re only limited by your imagination and tastebuds!

 

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I used this homemade noodles recipe the day before my daughter’s birthday this 2019 to make noodles as my own version of the Chinese longevity noodles for her. It symbolises what I wish for my daughter: long life, prosperity and good luck (amongst other things).

This brings us to the end of my Simple Homemade Noodles Recipe for Kids. Drop me a comment below if you do try out the recipe. Would love to know how it went.