Maggi noodles! That two-minute wonder we grew up eating. Most of us have gone through a phase in life when we relied on Maggi to provide an instant meal. Remember those college days, or nights working late?
Maggi has come to my rescue many a time. I have cooked it on a broken electric coil, on an open fire while camping, and in the microwave. Sometimes I just used hot tap water. So, I can’t imagine a pantry without Maggi.
But can Maggi be a part of a healthy diet?
To be honest, most diets people talk about are nothing but fads. I can vouch for this because I have been on every kind of diet in the course of my life. Low fat, low carb, fat free, high protein, Atkins, South Beach, Cabbage Soup, ETL…the list goes on and on.
The only real diet is the one you can stick to in the long term. Depriving yourself of any particular type of food is just impossible. A healthy diet is a balanced diet that includes all food groups in the right proportion.
Starving yourself for days and then feasting on sweets and fried goodies never helped anyone. Everything in life is relative. So is fat. Your body needs 20-30% of fat to function properly. According to the Indian Council for Medical Research, a balanced Indian diet must provide 50-60% calories from carbohydrates, 10-15% from protein and 20-30% from fat.
Your age, activity level and personal history also play a part in deciding what’s good for you, of course.
How does Maggi measure up to these guidelines? The nutrient breakdown in Maggi is close to that mentioned above. One packet or cake of Maggi contains about 11-13g of fat. This is about 20% of the daily recommended intake and you could easily exceed it by adding extra ghee on your roti.
Maggi noodles go through a 5-step cooking process. They are steamed, baked, fried quickly, then cooled and dried. This ensures that you can cook them up in two minutes, making them instant.
From a cooking point of view, there are some advantages to using Maggi noodles in your recipe. They cook quickly which is always a plus for busy people, and they don’t stick together. As a recipe creator, it is my job to make sure any dish I create is balanced and healthy and loaded with nutrients.
The Sweet and Sour noodles are something both kids and grandparents will love. Tangy with just a slight heat from pepper, these noodles are bursting with flavor. You can make them hot if you like by adding more chili or pepper. But every recipe doesn’t need to be hot in my opinion.
These sweet & sour noodles are highly nutritious because they use a wide variety of vegetables. These vegetables are steamed in the same broth in which the noodles cook. This means all the nutrients are preserved and your dish is bursting with the flavors from these tasty veggies. Ginger not only adds a punch but is also good for digestion.
You can use tofu or paneer in this recipe to add some protein and make this a one pot meal. Use whatever veggies you like and have on hand. You can chop them fine or cut them any way you want.
The base of these sweet & sour noodles is orange juice. Yup! Use a 100% juice or fresh juice. The noodles cook in the juice based sauce and absorb all the flavors. Honey is used to sweeten the noodles.
Our recipe is almost instant, barely taking 15-20 minutes total. But I dare you to call this dish unhealthy.
Sweet and Sour Noodles Recipe
Ingredients
- 4 baby corn
- 1 medium carrot
- 10 green beans
- ¼ cup red capsicum
- 4-6 mushrooms
- ¼ cup green peas (optional)
- ¼ cup spring onions (optional)
- ¼ cup shredded cabbage (optional)
- 2 cakes or packs Maggi noodles
- 1 cup orange juice
- 2 cups water
- 1 inch ginger grated
- 1 tsp soy sauce
- ¼ tsp chili sauce (optional)
- 4-6 white peppercorns, crushed
- 1 Tbsp honey
- 1 tsp sesame seeds, toasted
Method
- Combine juice, water, soy sauce, chili sauce and pepper in a pot. Add the grated ginger. Bring to a boil.
- Cut all the vegetables in a similar size and shape.
- Add veggies to boiling liquid. Let them boil for 3-4 minutes.
- Add the honey.
- Add the noodles.
- Cook for 2-3 minutes until noodles are cooked to your liking. You can keep some broth to make these soupy or cook the liquid out.
- Serve hot garnished with toasted sesame seeds.
How do you like to cook your Maggi noodles?
