Meals for Under £10: Spicy Asian noodle broth

WITH fragrant ginger, hot chilli, fresh veggies and juicy mushrooms, this spicy noodle soup is the perfect midweek meal to satisfy your savoury cravings.

Warm and nourishing, the noodles makes this dish filling enough to serve as a main meal, especially when served with other Asian-inspired sides, and it’s a great treat for the whole family.

You’ll need:

1 tbs sunflower oil,

1 carrot, peeled and very finely chopped

A thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger, peeled and very finely chopped

2 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely chopped

1 chilli deseeded (optional) and finely chopped

A handful of sugar snap peas

2 or 3 chestnut mushrooms, quartered

2 kaffir lime leaves

2 stock cubes

1 nest of dried noodles

1 spring onion, sliced

Method:

Heat the sunflower oil in a pot over a medium-low heat.

Fry the carrot, ginger, garlic and chilli for 5–10 minutes until soft and fragrant.

Add the sugar snap peas, mushrooms and lime leaves. Pour in 1.6 litres of boiling water, and then throw in the crumbled stock cubes and noodles. Bring everything to the boil and then reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes.

Scatter some sliced spring onions on each bowl and serve.

You could also try adding a couple of dashes of soy sauce and plenty of freshly ground black pepper to the finished soup.

This recipe comes from Seasonal Soups, the cookbook from soup-obsessed greengrocer, Fraser Reid, which is published on December 17 by Kitchen Press, priced at £8.99.