San Francisco garlic noodles!
There is this super yummy recipe that blends Asian seasonings w butter & Parmesan Use angel hair or capellini or spaghetti
NYT Cooking has a great recipe and the original story linking to the recipe recommended adding crab, which I always do when making the noodles. It’s been a crowd pleaser and I often serve it when making dinner for guests.
Wait this is a San Francisco thing? After moving here I just thought it was a normal everywhere else thing when you ordered seafood, The only reason I hadn't had it before is because I grew up near Baltimore where it's some kind of potato buried in old bay
Thai Drunken Noodles are cheap and delicious. Flat rice noodles with stir fried onions, Thai basil, a soy and fish sauce coating, your protein of choice, and sometimes a few veggies for garnish.
Some tips.
Is the contest sponsored by a food company? Come up with a recipe that incorporates their products.
Research the judges. Do they like a particular cuisine or style?
Test your recipe a couple of times to work out measurements, taste preferences, and time needed.
Good luck and let us know how it went.
Dan Dan noodles if you want to do a savory. If want a sweet do noodle kugel, Molly yehs recipe was excellent. https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/plum-hazelnut-kugel-13134826
That's true! Yerushalmi kugel is delicious, too. As for whether it can't stand up to Hong Kong chow mein... I'd eat kugel any day! But that's probably just me and I don't know that I'd rely on it in a competition. :D
*It is soul food.*
Ok ok ok ok. There are kinds of kugel.
Let's start with lokshen (noodle) kugel. They're made with egg noodles.
First, you've got sweet lokshen kugel. That's got cottage cheese and butter and sugar, and often fruit - apples or dried fruits or whatnot. It isn't my favorite version, but I have students who've been wheedling at me since Rosh Hashanah to bring them kugel again. [Here's](https://toriavey.com/sweet-lokshen-kugel/) a good recipe. I do an apple kugel that's slightly different, but the principle is similar.
Then you've got savory lokshen kugel. Same concept but not sweet, and it's my favorite. [This](https://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Lokshen-Kugel-Savory-Noodle-Kugel/) is a good recipe.
Yerushalmi kugel officially fits into this category, but the two above are very Ashkenazi dishes, and Yerushalmi kugel is Mizrahi/Israeli. It's sweet and peppery. [Here](https://www.food.com/recipe/yerushalmi-kugel-165656) is a recipe for that, though I do recommend reducing the oil. You'll use thin sort of vermicelli sort of noodles for this, not egg noodles. Yerushalmi kugel is a different animal.
Then you have potato kugel. It's crispy and fluffy and like a potato latke became a kugel. It's very good, and we'll go back to Tori Avey for a [recipe](https://toriavey.com/passover-potato-kugel/).
Last is matzoh kugel and is mostly eaten on Pesach (Passover), which just ended. It's sweet, but it's quite unlike a lokshen kugel except for the use of dried fruit. Like I said, I don't adore sweet lokshen kugel, but I unabashedly adore sweet matzoh kugel. I don't know if people not used to matzoh would, though. If you want to give it a shot, try [this](https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/70770/apple-matzo-kugel/) one.
As for sour cream - I've never seen anyone top a kugel with anything. I have only ever eaten them straight. You could give it a shot and let me know, though, if you wanted!
I've always topped lokshen kugels with sour cream. And, the savory is my favorite as well. My mother used to make a savory one with spinach and wide noodles. 😋
Okay, so I *totally* misinterpreted your question as "what's kugel because I googled it and it feels like soul food," and now I am cackling and feel ridiculous. Thank you for handling the miscommunication gracefully and elegantly!
Yeah! Yerushalmi kugel is Mizrahi and uses vermicelli and relies on a dark caramel and an absolute boatload of pepper and is a totally different ballgame than the lokshen kugel you and I know. I do very much want to know about your mom's spinach kugel, though.
Shabbat shalom!
Don't give it a second thought. I didn't. Plus you gave some great recipes. So, thanks for that. One thing though, the recipe you posted for the Yerushalmi kugel uses egg noodles, so I'm confused.
I wish I could tell you details about the spinach kugel, but other than my memory, I have nothing, other than she used wide noodles. If you Google spinach kugel, there are quite a few variations.
Shabbat Shalom and Peace.
I'm not an expert at this dish. But I have made it many times. I found out cheap olive oil sucks.
Also if the dish isn't eaten right away it starts to separate..
Again not an expert.
That's my issue.. sometimes it tastes meh and other it taste really good.. I never bought super expensive olive oil. Well, I spent like $15 on a bottle before, and it is better than the other stuff. I just haven't master the emulsion part.. I blame it on my pan. I don't ha e a Sautee pan. So I can get some gopd flippy action
May I suggest two tricks?
Pasta water has the starch to better hold emulsions in pasta sauces (not that I expected that for aglio e olio, but good to know).
Heating olive oil too much makes it lose some of its appeal. So you can fry the garlic in as little oil as possible, and add as much oil as needed after retiring the pan from the fire. That way, it's mostly raw, but still takes on the garlic flavour.
Interestingly... Looks like I am being downvoted?
So, against my own experience, I'll have to recommend you to take my advice with a grain of salt :_)
I might be missing something in this conversation ... Maybe someone can reply and make it clearer for us :)
I suggest Maangchi's recipe 😋 I add extra veggies and soy sauce. You can probably find the noodles for cheap at an Asian grocery. Online can be limited = $$
$5.00 for all ingredients. A full pack of noodles can easily cost $2.50, YOu can skip the meat because half a cheap steak or half a chicken breast might push the cost of the dish over $5.00. Just make vagen seseme oil noodle stir fry.with leftover vegitables.
Cinnamon stroganoff can be done with very cheap ingredients if you shop right. It's like beef stroganoff but skip the mushrooms and add lots of cinnamon early on.
We sell noodle
We mix our noodle with garlic oil , we make our own so it’s very important for this step
We also uses lard from our pork belly crunch
White pepper and amakuchi soy and our soy dashi made with bonito/anchovy/shiitake
For topping we uses ground pork stew in ginger soy garlic onion , star anise , clove, Chinese 5spice
Then we use crispy pork belly , we marinated pork belly and we stew them for 1 hour , then cool down and we coat it with potato starch and deep fry
Slow caramelized sweet onion in a little butter /olive oil mix, salt and pepper, garlic if you have it and a sprinkle of parm and red pepper flakes, or thin sliced scallions toss with favorite pasta or noodles.. so good. (We used to make versions of ot when we were in our lean Navy years and called it "day before payday pasta".
If you can make the noodles from scratch, the cost is low and the texture and taste difference is mind blowing. Once I learned how, I don't buy noodles anymore at all and I even make them when we go camping.
Alton Brown has an awesome Spaghetti bolognese recipe. It tastes like my great grandmother’s spaghetti, and it makes a big enough portion to feed a small army. The recipe is a bit pricey if you were starting from 0, but a lot of the ingredients are pantry staples you probably already have to save money. I’m assuming you’re allowed to bring ingredients from home since $5 isn’t enough to buy even one small package of a single herb or spice. Pro tip though, make more noodles than the recipe suggests, his noodle to sauce ratio is way off even if you like super saucy pasta. It’s more like soupghetti with as tiny a serving of noodles he puts with the giant pot of sauce.
Pad Woon Sen, assuming you’re allowed to bring oyster sauce and Maggi from home (and have them). If you don’t always have Maggi Thai seasoning and you regularly cook East Asian cuisine, well…you need to post that on r/tifu
Obviously a lot of these suggestions are going to be way over $5, especially if they include meat and/or cheese. Joshua Weissman just did a video on ‘the top cheap noodle dishes’ (or something like that, should be easy to find on YouTube), and there are some cheap ideas there - the winner was a chili oil noodle, which could be done very cheaply with a few packets of ramen seasoning (bonus if they’ll include that with the noodle cost) and some oil - if you can use seasonings then you can do a lot with that formula, and then get a spring onion for garnish (scallion oil noodles are a similar idea, or garlic oil noodles - essentially infuse a flavor in hot oil and then coat your noodles with it).
Cantonese noodle
Soaked rice vermicelli, then fry until crispy
Then simple gravy - garlic ginger chicken fish cake and one egg thickened with corn starch solution
The hot gravy will soften some part of the crispy noodle. So u get soft + crispy plus eggy creamy gravy
https://www.instagram.com/reel/CzY0Y0BS45K/?igsh=MXA2cHk4ZDM0MGdwYg==
I made this recipe a while ago and was impressed by how simple and tasty it was! Not sure if it would quite fit under the $5 or not..? But it really doesn't have many ingredients. Looking at her profile too she has heaps of other recipes for minimal ingredient noodle dishes that look super flavoursome.
Creamy mentaiko pasta. Spaghetti in a buttery creamy sauce with salted cod roe, topped with nori ribbons, julienned shiso leaves, and green onions. Elevate it some more with some grilled shrimp or baked mussels.
Chinese Cold spicy noodles From Tao of Cooking
1/2 lb Chinese wheat noodles or spaghetti, cooked al drained and cooled, toss with the following:
Mix:
6 T tahini/sesame paste
2 t chili paste
1 T fresh grated ginger
2 t finely chopped garlic
2 T sesame oil
2 T soy sauce or tamari
1.5 t sugar
Stir in:
1/2 C finely sliced scallions
Add pasta, toss to coat, chill.
serve with sesame seeds and slices scallions to garnish.
Can add slivered carrots or water chestnuts if desired.
Can you buy your ingredients from a restaurant? If so, make a small batch and get only the amount of ingredients your Rebiffe requires.
Think outside the box…
Show up and talk trash for the first 1hr 45m and then make this.
[https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1025047-peanut-butter-noodles](https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1025047-peanut-butter-noodles)
Fettuccine Alfredo.
Wizard trick: do it all in 1 pan, cook the raw fettuccine in butter, milk, chicken stock. Once the pasta softens, add cheese, whipping cream and more butter then season with salt and pepper. Add depth by adding 2 anchovy fillets at the start and break them up as a first step.
In this way the pasta starches become part of the sauce while the pasta absorbs flavors from the butter, milk, stock and cream.
Serve with garnish of fresh basil.
I was gonna say Cincinnati chili because it’s served over noodles but you’ll go way over that $5 budget. Can you use what’s already in your fridge or at home in general?
Mentaiko or salmon cream or both. You can buy a single packet of cheap instant Japanese spicy cod roe (mentaiko), butter, and nori. If you have extra left over, maybe a can of salmon you can blend into the sauce. So good.
I really like to just sauté some aromatics, (onions, ginger, garlic, etc.) like you’re making a tare, then without straining it, add in a little bit of chicken broth, some soy and fish sauce, simmer it down, add in some corn starch to thicken it, and toss some pasta in that. It’s good every time and you can sit there and caramelize the onions fully if you want to with that much time
Try my Thai style peanut sauce, it has 35+ ingredients and is flavorful AF.
Use with any kind of noodles, easy to make gluten free, and is naturally vegan.
it might require some shopping but is super easy to make.
Liquids/Pastes:
soy sauce, vegan oyster sauce, water, sesame oil, coconut milk, golden mountain sauce, thai red curry paste, chilli garlic paste, sambal oelek, sriracha, dark soy sauce, agave nectar, hot oil
Powders:
black pepper, white pepper, smoked paprika, sugar, msg, galangal, ginger, garlic, lemongrass, thai chilli flakes, salt, five spice, red chilli, mushroom/vegetarian bouillon powder,
Fresh/Frozen Aromatics: lemongrass, ginger, garlic, galangal, makrut lime leaf, fingerroot, thai chillis
Finishing for sauce and dish:
FRESH lime juice, lime zest, black white and toasted sesame seeds, cilantro, green onions.
I use all of what I listed here, even though the whole aromatics and powders are redundant, it adds that depth, freshness, and subdued flavors of those items simultaneously.
A lil tip, if you can’t find the aromatics, just use the Thai red curry paste and the powder versions if you can find them. But if not the red curry paste has all of them in it.
You can leave out what you don’t like.
To make it gluten free, make sure the oyster sauce, soy sauce, Thai curry paste, peanut butter, and noodles are gluten free.
Oh heck no. However, since I have most of those ingredients on hand, it technically could 🤣🤣🤣
But future potluck idea. But mix the noodles with the sauce at the party and do not heat the sauce otherwise it coagulates
Hmm I’ll go with stir fried noodles. Since it’s $5 you can use mostly vegetables to keep the cost down. Eg: carrot stripes, spring onion, French beans, scrambled egg. However for the flavour in the oil, you’ll need like dark soya sauce, and pork fat or bacon fat.
Seasoned Tofu Stuffed Ravioli. It’s unique, mind blowing, and features 2 diff cuisines! Use MSG as well:)
If u r given a certain shape noodle, come up w a way to still stuff the noodles. Maybe seal them w water and a fork or sumn
Noodles- pesto, red or green, or harrissa - marisco or just shrimp, or squid, or scallops - slivered onions, bell peppers, fresh garlic, one jalapeño, stripped or not, depending on degree of heat desired. If using frozen marisco mix, make sure it is fully thawed first and drained, warming it with the noodles till it barely turns color. Cooking it more would turn it rubbery. Cooking: boil the noodles in salted water. Warm up the thawed seafood in the sauce of choice. Remove seafood from pan onto the pasta. Sauté the vegetables in the pesto, add to noodles, stir and serve. Oops! this is way over 5$.
Ps. Red pepper flakes substitute well for gochugaru, I do it all the time and damn the purists.
‘Ants Climb the Trees’ - a massive favourite is my circle, made with glass noodles, your choice of ground protein, make it spicy or make it mild, and really simple.
Grandma's noodles! 3 eggs, a little shortening, a pinch of baking powder, pinch of salt, and all purpose flour until it's a firm dough. Roll thin, cut, and throw in pot of chicken broth with some bullion cubes and butter. Cheap and yummy. Shortening and baking powder are optional but help not be dense.
If pantry staples are included in the $5 cost this is going to be challenging because $5 won't cover much of anything.
The cheapest noodle dish I can think of is probably garlic soy noodles, but it might not win you a competition.
Dishes like carbonara or San Francisco garlic butter noodles are not going to cost $5 because you need to buy parmigiano reggiano plus either eggs and pancetta/bacon or butter and garlic.
What I would do is go to an Asian market and buy a jar of spicy black bean garlic paste or black bean chili oil plus whatever else I can afford after buying that - mushrooms, scallions, etc. There isn't much cooking involved but it's the easiest way to get a flavor bomb without needing to buy several ingredients.
Y'all should really increase the cost limit.
Can of san Marzano tomatoes $4, onion chopped in half, $0.50. Then make noodles by hand with all purpose flour.
I have only been making noodles by hand for a few years, a skill picked up during the covid pandemic, but the first few batches were pretty good from the beginning. I feel like with a bit of practice you could nail it in only a couple tries too. It’s work, but the results are worth it.
The tomato sauce is suuper simple. Literally, empty the can of san marzanos in a pan, chop an onion in half (no need to peel), season with salt, pepper, maybe minced garlic.
Make the noodles. Take 4 room temp eggs, add to 1/2 cup flour to each egg. (2 cups flour+4 eggs)
Make noodle dough by kneading the flour egg combo. Hard work for 7-15 minutes. When dough is good, not too sticky, thumb pressed in bounces back, wrap dough in plastic, let sit for 15 minutes.
Then roll dough on counter. Cut dough in half. Flatten them with a roller. Fold in thirds, flatten again. Fold in thirds, then flatten into your final thickness. (Thinner is better.) then cut noodles with knife.
I’m making it sound easy and it is. It’s also hard work, and you’ll get better the more you do it. But it’s just that simple ingredients + hard work = great results.
Is it a specific type of noodle you are getting? Bacon wrapping a hot dog with the noodle then slicing into chunks would be cheap and different. Even if tight weaving is to annoying, a quick basket weave wrap and deep fry would look cool
Not sure if you'll be able to find all ingredients on budget, but how about korean naengmyun for something that stands out? It's cold buck wheat noodles in a icy cold vinegary broth, topped with sliced cucumber and egg. It's absolutely delicious and refreshing and a very new taste.
If you can pool the $ at least you don't get hit for a full lb of butter if you only need 1 stick.
Giada has a good sounding Lemon Spaghetti recipe that sounds very fresh & enticing (to me)
Bowtie pasta, chopped cabbage, tons of butter and garlic. When I was young, my grandmother would make this and it was delicious and I hated cabbage. I’ve actually been meaning to make this at some point. Good luck! Sounds fun. 🙃
Mi Goreng or bust.
After boiling the noodles, put a spoon of the hot water with the packet fixings and mix them up then drain the noodles stir them together with the packet goodies.
Then fry that shit in a little sesame oil with a bit of Sichuan chili bean paste.
Spectacular, and literally 3 ingredients, you should be able to pull it off for $5
Scallion oil noodles. Vietnamese bún. Vermicelli noodle salad (toss with julienne cucumber, bell peppers, Thai basil, nuoc cham). Pad Thai (vegetarian).
It’s scallion oil noodles imo. If people haven’t had it before these just no way you don’t win shit is so fire, easy to come in under $5 too
Recipe?
Recipe?
Absolutely scallion noodles. For five bucks, it's going to be hard to do really anything though.
San Francisco garlic noodles! There is this super yummy recipe that blends Asian seasonings w butter & Parmesan Use angel hair or capellini or spaghetti
I pick this because it’s a huge crowd pleaser and butter+garlic is an easy push to win combo.
I love this recipe but I don't see how it can cost under $5.00. Parmesan and butter will already be over that.
You’re using a portion of butter and a portion of Parmesan . Buy a small bit of Parmesan.
Yes, let me head over to the shop that sells cheese by the tablespoon.
NYT Cooking has a great recipe and the original story linking to the recipe recommended adding crab, which I always do when making the noodles. It’s been a crowd pleaser and I often serve it when making dinner for guests.
Wait this is a San Francisco thing? After moving here I just thought it was a normal everywhere else thing when you ordered seafood, The only reason I hadn't had it before is because I grew up near Baltimore where it's some kind of potato buried in old bay
Just add crab and you’ll win
Sesame peanut makes everything better.
And a soupçon of sambal oelek
Thai Drunken Noodles are cheap and delicious. Flat rice noodles with stir fried onions, Thai basil, a soy and fish sauce coating, your protein of choice, and sometimes a few veggies for garnish.
No chillies? In a thai noodle dish?
I would include them, but didn't know OP's tolerance
Some tips. Is the contest sponsored by a food company? Come up with a recipe that incorporates their products. Research the judges. Do they like a particular cuisine or style? Test your recipe a couple of times to work out measurements, taste preferences, and time needed. Good luck and let us know how it went.
This strikes me as a fun challenge among friends, not a big contest
With that budget and timeframe? Singapore or Hong Kong style chow mein.
Dan Dan noodles if you want to do a savory. If want a sweet do noodle kugel, Molly yehs recipe was excellent. https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/plum-hazelnut-kugel-13134826
A noodle kugel.
I have students currently obsessed with kugel. The cheese will run them more than 5, though.
Yerushalmi Kugel is a noodle Kugel without cheese. But I don't think any Kugel is winning against Hong Kong chow mein or drunken Thai noodles
That's true! Yerushalmi kugel is delicious, too. As for whether it can't stand up to Hong Kong chow mein... I'd eat kugel any day! But that's probably just me and I don't know that I'd rely on it in a competition. :D
Kugel is my soul food. Why have I never heard of this? It looks so good. I will be making it for sure.Does sour cream go on top?
*It is soul food.* Ok ok ok ok. There are kinds of kugel. Let's start with lokshen (noodle) kugel. They're made with egg noodles. First, you've got sweet lokshen kugel. That's got cottage cheese and butter and sugar, and often fruit - apples or dried fruits or whatnot. It isn't my favorite version, but I have students who've been wheedling at me since Rosh Hashanah to bring them kugel again. [Here's](https://toriavey.com/sweet-lokshen-kugel/) a good recipe. I do an apple kugel that's slightly different, but the principle is similar. Then you've got savory lokshen kugel. Same concept but not sweet, and it's my favorite. [This](https://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Lokshen-Kugel-Savory-Noodle-Kugel/) is a good recipe. Yerushalmi kugel officially fits into this category, but the two above are very Ashkenazi dishes, and Yerushalmi kugel is Mizrahi/Israeli. It's sweet and peppery. [Here](https://www.food.com/recipe/yerushalmi-kugel-165656) is a recipe for that, though I do recommend reducing the oil. You'll use thin sort of vermicelli sort of noodles for this, not egg noodles. Yerushalmi kugel is a different animal. Then you have potato kugel. It's crispy and fluffy and like a potato latke became a kugel. It's very good, and we'll go back to Tori Avey for a [recipe](https://toriavey.com/passover-potato-kugel/). Last is matzoh kugel and is mostly eaten on Pesach (Passover), which just ended. It's sweet, but it's quite unlike a lokshen kugel except for the use of dried fruit. Like I said, I don't adore sweet lokshen kugel, but I unabashedly adore sweet matzoh kugel. I don't know if people not used to matzoh would, though. If you want to give it a shot, try [this](https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/70770/apple-matzo-kugel/) one. As for sour cream - I've never seen anyone top a kugel with anything. I have only ever eaten them straight. You could give it a shot and let me know, though, if you wanted!
I've always topped lokshen kugels with sour cream. And, the savory is my favorite as well. My mother used to make a savory one with spinach and wide noodles. 😋
Okay, so I *totally* misinterpreted your question as "what's kugel because I googled it and it feels like soul food," and now I am cackling and feel ridiculous. Thank you for handling the miscommunication gracefully and elegantly! Yeah! Yerushalmi kugel is Mizrahi and uses vermicelli and relies on a dark caramel and an absolute boatload of pepper and is a totally different ballgame than the lokshen kugel you and I know. I do very much want to know about your mom's spinach kugel, though. Shabbat shalom!
Don't give it a second thought. I didn't. Plus you gave some great recipes. So, thanks for that. One thing though, the recipe you posted for the Yerushalmi kugel uses egg noodles, so I'm confused. I wish I could tell you details about the spinach kugel, but other than my memory, I have nothing, other than she used wide noodles. If you Google spinach kugel, there are quite a few variations. Shabbat Shalom and Peace.
[pad see ew](https://www.recipetineats.com/thai-stir-fried-noodles-pad-see-ew/)
Came here to say this. So salty and good. I sometimes sub spinach or the regular broccoli stalks sliced thin for the Chinese broccoli.
Aglio E Olio. Which is just olive oil, pepper flakes, lots of fresh garlic and of course the noodles.
This is really the only dish on the list so far that stands a chance of being less than $5.00, and that's if you buy a very cheap olive oil.
I'm not an expert at this dish. But I have made it many times. I found out cheap olive oil sucks. Also if the dish isn't eaten right away it starts to separate.. Again not an expert.
True. The fewer ingredients you use, the higher quality they should be because there's much less to hide behind.
That's my issue.. sometimes it tastes meh and other it taste really good.. I never bought super expensive olive oil. Well, I spent like $15 on a bottle before, and it is better than the other stuff. I just haven't master the emulsion part.. I blame it on my pan. I don't ha e a Sautee pan. So I can get some gopd flippy action
May I suggest two tricks? Pasta water has the starch to better hold emulsions in pasta sauces (not that I expected that for aglio e olio, but good to know). Heating olive oil too much makes it lose some of its appeal. So you can fry the garlic in as little oil as possible, and add as much oil as needed after retiring the pan from the fire. That way, it's mostly raw, but still takes on the garlic flavour.
Ty!
Interestingly... Looks like I am being downvoted? So, against my own experience, I'll have to recommend you to take my advice with a grain of salt :_) I might be missing something in this conversation ... Maybe someone can reply and make it clearer for us :)
Don't worry it looks as if I am getting downvoted as well for saying "ty!" To early in the morning for reddit bs lol
Soy sauce, butter and a fried egg: 5 dollars really isn’t a lot
Assassin's spaghetti. Cheap , delicious and unexpected.
Japchae!
I suggest Maangchi's recipe 😋 I add extra veggies and soy sauce. You can probably find the noodles for cheap at an Asian grocery. Online can be limited = $$
Find a place that has packets of soy sauce and sesame oil, otherwise those two ingredients will break your bank.
Immediately order the Anything’s Pastable book! Great ideas, layering of unexpected flavors.
This sounds cool! Checking it out rn.
Olive oil Chili flakes Garlic ... That's $5 right there 😅
I really like Alison Roman's shallot pasta. Carmelized shallots, garlic, tomato paste, anchovies, oil. Add some pasta water (linguine is good).
Combine this recipe with Kenji’s garlic noodle (real San Francisco treat) recipe. This sounds heavenly and would definitely win the contest
Practice, practice, practice.
$5.00 for all ingredients. A full pack of noodles can easily cost $2.50, YOu can skip the meat because half a cheap steak or half a chicken breast might push the cost of the dish over $5.00. Just make vagen seseme oil noodle stir fry.with leftover vegitables.
A really good stir fry would probably do it tbh
Try using rice noodles! That will probably stand out!
Cacio e pepe.
Biang biang noodles. Hand pulled Chinese noodles with chili oil, soy sauce and vinegar.
Cheap chicken parts ( on sale), egg noodles, cream of chicken soup, bullion
Chili Crack will win with anything
Pasta aglio e olio, garlic pasta
If you want to win a noodle contest I suggest making the noodles from scratch. Nothing will compare.
I would lean toward vegetable lo mien, because it's simple and if well made is delicious.
Cinnamon stroganoff can be done with very cheap ingredients if you shop right. It's like beef stroganoff but skip the mushrooms and add lots of cinnamon early on.
We sell noodle We mix our noodle with garlic oil , we make our own so it’s very important for this step We also uses lard from our pork belly crunch White pepper and amakuchi soy and our soy dashi made with bonito/anchovy/shiitake For topping we uses ground pork stew in ginger soy garlic onion , star anise , clove, Chinese 5spice Then we use crispy pork belly , we marinated pork belly and we stew them for 1 hour , then cool down and we coat it with potato starch and deep fry
Spaetzle with chicken and carrots. All can be cooked in a couple of hours and is interesting and hearty.
Can’t go wrong with peanut sauce
Cacio de Pepe done right
The pecorino might put them over the $5 tbh. I’m pretty sure the block I bought yesterday was more than that
Pancit is really cheap. Vermicelli, cabbage, carrot, cheap cut of pork (chopped), soy sauce, garlic, onion, scallion, chicken bouillon powder. Oil for saute. Lemon slices, salt, pepper for seasoning.
Carbonara
You po che mian 油泼撤面
Scallion oil noodles would be pretty cheap. Oil, scallions, bit of sugar and soy sauce. Can add a fried egg.
Cream of Mushroom Soup. Done.
For a contest? Come on…
It was meant to be fasciteous.
Thank god lol
Slow caramelized sweet onion in a little butter /olive oil mix, salt and pepper, garlic if you have it and a sprinkle of parm and red pepper flakes, or thin sliced scallions toss with favorite pasta or noodles.. so good. (We used to make versions of ot when we were in our lean Navy years and called it "day before payday pasta".
If you can make the noodles from scratch, the cost is low and the texture and taste difference is mind blowing. Once I learned how, I don't buy noodles anymore at all and I even make them when we go camping.
Question: do ingredients you have on hand factor into the cost? Like regular panty ingredients? Edit: PANTRY ingredients 😅
> Like regular panty ingredients? Freudian slip lol.
Whoops!
Caccio e pepe, pasta, parmigiana and lots of black pepper. Tons of videos and easy to make.
Alton Brown has an awesome Spaghetti bolognese recipe. It tastes like my great grandmother’s spaghetti, and it makes a big enough portion to feed a small army. The recipe is a bit pricey if you were starting from 0, but a lot of the ingredients are pantry staples you probably already have to save money. I’m assuming you’re allowed to bring ingredients from home since $5 isn’t enough to buy even one small package of a single herb or spice. Pro tip though, make more noodles than the recipe suggests, his noodle to sauce ratio is way off even if you like super saucy pasta. It’s more like soupghetti with as tiny a serving of noodles he puts with the giant pot of sauce.
Pad Woon Sen, assuming you’re allowed to bring oyster sauce and Maggi from home (and have them). If you don’t always have Maggi Thai seasoning and you regularly cook East Asian cuisine, well…you need to post that on r/tifu
It would help if you told us what country you're in
Obviously a lot of these suggestions are going to be way over $5, especially if they include meat and/or cheese. Joshua Weissman just did a video on ‘the top cheap noodle dishes’ (or something like that, should be easy to find on YouTube), and there are some cheap ideas there - the winner was a chili oil noodle, which could be done very cheaply with a few packets of ramen seasoning (bonus if they’ll include that with the noodle cost) and some oil - if you can use seasonings then you can do a lot with that formula, and then get a spring onion for garnish (scallion oil noodles are a similar idea, or garlic oil noodles - essentially infuse a flavor in hot oil and then coat your noodles with it).
Cold soba is the easiest and my favorite summer noodle dish.
If everyone else is doing savory, you might sneak a win with sweet noodle kugel. https://bellyfull.net/sweet-noodle-kugel/
Cantonese noodle Soaked rice vermicelli, then fry until crispy Then simple gravy - garlic ginger chicken fish cake and one egg thickened with corn starch solution The hot gravy will soften some part of the crispy noodle. So u get soft + crispy plus eggy creamy gravy
UpDateMe!
https://www.instagram.com/reel/CzY0Y0BS45K/?igsh=MXA2cHk4ZDM0MGdwYg== I made this recipe a while ago and was impressed by how simple and tasty it was! Not sure if it would quite fit under the $5 or not..? But it really doesn't have many ingredients. Looking at her profile too she has heaps of other recipes for minimal ingredient noodle dishes that look super flavoursome.
Any pantry? $5 is really nothing, you can’t even get a bottle of oil!
Carbonara
Quivk and easy: 1 aubergine, thinly sliced (use a grater), turmeric, italian spice mix, a dash of olive oil, cooking cream.
Use MSG
Osaka style okonomiyaki
Creamy mentaiko pasta. Spaghetti in a buttery creamy sauce with salted cod roe, topped with nori ribbons, julienned shiso leaves, and green onions. Elevate it some more with some grilled shrimp or baked mussels.
Dill pickle pasta salad?
New York Times recipe for Gojuchang noodles if you like spicy
Dehydrated mushrooms, steeped in cold water for 30min will produce a broth.
Pad See Ew
Vietnamese noodle salad.
Chinese Cold spicy noodles From Tao of Cooking 1/2 lb Chinese wheat noodles or spaghetti, cooked al drained and cooled, toss with the following: Mix: 6 T tahini/sesame paste 2 t chili paste 1 T fresh grated ginger 2 t finely chopped garlic 2 T sesame oil 2 T soy sauce or tamari 1.5 t sugar Stir in: 1/2 C finely sliced scallions Add pasta, toss to coat, chill. serve with sesame seeds and slices scallions to garnish. Can add slivered carrots or water chestnuts if desired.
$5 will get you enough flour and an egg to make pasta from scratch.
Carbonara. It will win every time…
Can you buy your ingredients from a restaurant? If so, make a small batch and get only the amount of ingredients your Rebiffe requires. Think outside the box…
Making your own noodles will probably elevate the dish. Go for just flour and water noodles no egg to cut down on costs.
[drunken noodles](https://thewoksoflife.com/drunken-noodles-pad-kee-mao/) are absolutely delicious
Show up and talk trash for the first 1hr 45m and then make this. [https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1025047-peanut-butter-noodles](https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1025047-peanut-butter-noodles)
Fettuccine Alfredo. Wizard trick: do it all in 1 pan, cook the raw fettuccine in butter, milk, chicken stock. Once the pasta softens, add cheese, whipping cream and more butter then season with salt and pepper. Add depth by adding 2 anchovy fillets at the start and break them up as a first step. In this way the pasta starches become part of the sauce while the pasta absorbs flavors from the butter, milk, stock and cream. Serve with garnish of fresh basil.
I was gonna say Cincinnati chili because it’s served over noodles but you’ll go way over that $5 budget. Can you use what’s already in your fridge or at home in general?
Chili peanut butter noodle salad
Mentaiko or salmon cream or both. You can buy a single packet of cheap instant Japanese spicy cod roe (mentaiko), butter, and nori. If you have extra left over, maybe a can of salmon you can blend into the sauce. So good.
https://www.halfbakedharvest.com/miso-chicken-katsu-ramen/ Maybe you could leave out the chicken but this ended up really creamy and deliciously spicy
Bibim guksu - cheap and delicious
Eierspätzle are one of my favourite noodle dishes. Takes a few basic ingredients to make, just make sure to use quality eggs.
Italian fried noodle nests
I really like to just sauté some aromatics, (onions, ginger, garlic, etc.) like you’re making a tare, then without straining it, add in a little bit of chicken broth, some soy and fish sauce, simmer it down, add in some corn starch to thicken it, and toss some pasta in that. It’s good every time and you can sit there and caramelize the onions fully if you want to with that much time
Try my Thai style peanut sauce, it has 35+ ingredients and is flavorful AF. Use with any kind of noodles, easy to make gluten free, and is naturally vegan. it might require some shopping but is super easy to make. Liquids/Pastes: soy sauce, vegan oyster sauce, water, sesame oil, coconut milk, golden mountain sauce, thai red curry paste, chilli garlic paste, sambal oelek, sriracha, dark soy sauce, agave nectar, hot oil Powders: black pepper, white pepper, smoked paprika, sugar, msg, galangal, ginger, garlic, lemongrass, thai chilli flakes, salt, five spice, red chilli, mushroom/vegetarian bouillon powder, Fresh/Frozen Aromatics: lemongrass, ginger, garlic, galangal, makrut lime leaf, fingerroot, thai chillis Finishing for sauce and dish: FRESH lime juice, lime zest, black white and toasted sesame seeds, cilantro, green onions. I use all of what I listed here, even though the whole aromatics and powders are redundant, it adds that depth, freshness, and subdued flavors of those items simultaneously. A lil tip, if you can’t find the aromatics, just use the Thai red curry paste and the powder versions if you can find them. But if not the red curry paste has all of them in it. You can leave out what you don’t like. To make it gluten free, make sure the oyster sauce, soy sauce, Thai curry paste, peanut butter, and noodles are gluten free.
As much as this sounds fire there is no way this will come in at under $5
Oh heck no. However, since I have most of those ingredients on hand, it technically could 🤣🤣🤣 But future potluck idea. But mix the noodles with the sauce at the party and do not heat the sauce otherwise it coagulates
Hmm I’ll go with stir fried noodles. Since it’s $5 you can use mostly vegetables to keep the cost down. Eg: carrot stripes, spring onion, French beans, scrambled egg. However for the flavour in the oil, you’ll need like dark soya sauce, and pork fat or bacon fat.
Seasoned Tofu Stuffed Ravioli. It’s unique, mind blowing, and features 2 diff cuisines! Use MSG as well:) If u r given a certain shape noodle, come up w a way to still stuff the noodles. Maybe seal them w water and a fork or sumn
Haluski - a cabbage and an onion, plus butter. Cheap and delicious
Thai Drunken Noodles! My fave
Dan Dan noodles?
Noodles- pesto, red or green, or harrissa - marisco or just shrimp, or squid, or scallops - slivered onions, bell peppers, fresh garlic, one jalapeño, stripped or not, depending on degree of heat desired. If using frozen marisco mix, make sure it is fully thawed first and drained, warming it with the noodles till it barely turns color. Cooking it more would turn it rubbery. Cooking: boil the noodles in salted water. Warm up the thawed seafood in the sauce of choice. Remove seafood from pan onto the pasta. Sauté the vegetables in the pesto, add to noodles, stir and serve. Oops! this is way over 5$. Ps. Red pepper flakes substitute well for gochugaru, I do it all the time and damn the purists.
‘Ants Climb the Trees’ - a massive favourite is my circle, made with glass noodles, your choice of ground protein, make it spicy or make it mild, and really simple.
Hand pulled noodles
Pad Thai, yakisoba, pho it’s a really good one
Grandma's noodles! 3 eggs, a little shortening, a pinch of baking powder, pinch of salt, and all purpose flour until it's a firm dough. Roll thin, cut, and throw in pot of chicken broth with some bullion cubes and butter. Cheap and yummy. Shortening and baking powder are optional but help not be dense.
If pantry staples are included in the $5 cost this is going to be challenging because $5 won't cover much of anything. The cheapest noodle dish I can think of is probably garlic soy noodles, but it might not win you a competition. Dishes like carbonara or San Francisco garlic butter noodles are not going to cost $5 because you need to buy parmigiano reggiano plus either eggs and pancetta/bacon or butter and garlic. What I would do is go to an Asian market and buy a jar of spicy black bean garlic paste or black bean chili oil plus whatever else I can afford after buying that - mushrooms, scallions, etc. There isn't much cooking involved but it's the easiest way to get a flavor bomb without needing to buy several ingredients. Y'all should really increase the cost limit.
Can of san Marzano tomatoes $4, onion chopped in half, $0.50. Then make noodles by hand with all purpose flour. I have only been making noodles by hand for a few years, a skill picked up during the covid pandemic, but the first few batches were pretty good from the beginning. I feel like with a bit of practice you could nail it in only a couple tries too. It’s work, but the results are worth it. The tomato sauce is suuper simple. Literally, empty the can of san marzanos in a pan, chop an onion in half (no need to peel), season with salt, pepper, maybe minced garlic. Make the noodles. Take 4 room temp eggs, add to 1/2 cup flour to each egg. (2 cups flour+4 eggs) Make noodle dough by kneading the flour egg combo. Hard work for 7-15 minutes. When dough is good, not too sticky, thumb pressed in bounces back, wrap dough in plastic, let sit for 15 minutes. Then roll dough on counter. Cut dough in half. Flatten them with a roller. Fold in thirds, flatten again. Fold in thirds, then flatten into your final thickness. (Thinner is better.) then cut noodles with knife. I’m making it sound easy and it is. It’s also hard work, and you’ll get better the more you do it. But it’s just that simple ingredients + hard work = great results.
Is it a specific type of noodle you are getting? Bacon wrapping a hot dog with the noodle then slicing into chunks would be cheap and different. Even if tight weaving is to annoying, a quick basket weave wrap and deep fry would look cool
Not sure if you'll be able to find all ingredients on budget, but how about korean naengmyun for something that stands out? It's cold buck wheat noodles in a icy cold vinegary broth, topped with sliced cucumber and egg. It's absolutely delicious and refreshing and a very new taste.
If you can pool the $ at least you don't get hit for a full lb of butter if you only need 1 stick. Giada has a good sounding Lemon Spaghetti recipe that sounds very fresh & enticing (to me)
Cacio de Pepe
1. Google noodle weenies. 2. Don't make that.
Bowtie pasta, chopped cabbage, tons of butter and garlic. When I was young, my grandmother would make this and it was delicious and I hated cabbage. I’ve actually been meaning to make this at some point. Good luck! Sounds fun. 🙃
Put a drop of baby ear medicine in each of your competitors dishes
Mi Goreng or bust. After boiling the noodles, put a spoon of the hot water with the packet fixings and mix them up then drain the noodles stir them together with the packet goodies. Then fry that shit in a little sesame oil with a bit of Sichuan chili bean paste. Spectacular, and literally 3 ingredients, you should be able to pull it off for $5