Noodle Legend - Staff Home Testing!

Georgia

Sweet Soy Dipping Sauce

Delicious! A very sweet and salty dip with a hint of spice - this was perfect for dipping our spring onion pancakes into. It was useful having the kitchen tip about making in advance as I did this dish quickly first and then left it to the side whilst I got on with the other recipes.

Spring Onion Pancakes

I would definitely recommend! These were actually a lot quicker and easier to make than the method might suggest. I often make parathas with a curry because they're delicious and actually pretty simple to make, and these were just like the Chinese equivalent of parathas. It was absolutely delicious! Really flaky, lovely flavour, and paired perfectly with the sweet soy dipping sauce. We easily ate all 4 portions between 2 of us... oops!

Chicken in Satay Sauce

It was really tasty - sweet, rich and mild but with a very subtle hint of the Sichuan pepper in the MA LA BLEND which leaves a slight numbing effect.

Simple Cucumber Salad

I had this on the side of the chicken in satay sauce, which felt appropriate as chicken satay would often traditionally be served with cucumber or pickled veg on the side in Indonesia/Southeast Asia. The tangy freshness of the cucumber salad really helped to cut through the richness of the chicken dish and provided a nice contrast. It also looked really good - sprinkling ZHIMA over at the end always helps to jazz it up, and I think bashing the cucumber with a rolling pin before cutting it helps to make it look more sophisticated, as it gives it rougher edges and looks less domestic than just neat cut-up bits of cucumber.

Lemon Chicken

It tasted really great and very similar to takeaway lemon chicken. This is one of Tom's favourite Chinese takeaway dishes, and he said our version was better because it was fresher (I guess this is thanks to having fresh lemon zest in the sauce). It was VERY SWEET and almost verging on sickly by end but the chicken itself was really golden and cripsy and looked great cut into slices. This actually works really well as a midweek dinner - it's not exactly super quick, but is a lot simpler than you might think. And if you pair it with some plain Jasmine rice and some greens on the side, it feels recognisable as a typical dinner format and also very achievable midweek!

Broccoli with Garlic

It was delicious! I cook tenderstem broccoli all the time as it's easy and pairs well with everything, plus it often makes a dish look nicer (than regular broccoli) so this was a nice way to jazz it up a bit. The fried garlic looked really good sprinkled over the top, the only problem is the dressing doesn't really coat the broccoli or sit on it very well - it's almost as if the dressing resists the shiny broccoli stem and runs off it, so most of the sauce ended up pooling underneath the broccoli. Still tasted great obviously, just affected the appearance and impact of the finished dish.

Sesame Prawn Toast

Delicious! We really loved this as a starter, paired with some sweet chilli sauce for dipping. I particularly like how the layer of prawns is much thicker than it would be if you were getting this dish from a takeaway - makes it feel more indulgent. It looked great, the addition of ZHIMA makes it look particularly spectacular. It also looks really good with all of the triangles laid out nicely. I kept the crusts on as it felt wasteful to cut them off, but it would have probably looked a bit fancier and less domestic if I had done this. It's one of those dishes that seems quite impressive to make yourself (despite actually being pretty easy to put together!).

Robyn

Dumplings in Chilli Oil

The taste was great and the chilli oil was a fantastic addition. My dumplings didn't look the best and some of them split because I had left them out for a couple of hours prior to cooking but the chilli oil, coriander and nuts over the top helped to hide the look of the actual dumplings! These dumplings are a great dinner party dish, but you wouldn’t be doing this weekly!

Crispy Chilli Beef

The taste was better than the chinese takeaway! Perfect amount of sweetness and heat. The beef was ultra crispy before going in the sauce. It did start to soften after a while but the flavour was great and it looked glossy and delicious. A brilliant weekend fakeaway!

Chinese Salt & Pepper Chips

These are something I'd always order with a Chinese take away so I really wanted to give this recipe a try and see how easy it was to recreate. The end result was exactly like the take away version and we made them in the air fryer so it was also really quick!

Salt & Chilli Ribs

The recipe is very simple to follow and it was great to have the tip in there about making in advance! We only used 1 red chilli but definitely could have used more! I would definitely recommend these for a starter or snack. The pack of ribs we got was 650g but the instructions said 1kg - this was quite a lot for a starter! We used the 650g and it was definitely enough to share!

Sweet & Sour

This was the dish of the night - the sauce was orange and glossy just as you'd expect and it tasted absolutley delicious. We will make this again as a simple mid-week dinner or as a fun fake-away at the weekend!

Shaokao Chicken Skewers

I had to use the oven instead of the grill for these as I was cooking the ribs at the same time. They looked good but would have looked a lot better if they'd been cooked under the grill on skewers!

Marc

King Prawns in Szechuan Sauce

This was really lovely. I used red peppers but green may have added more visual interest to the dish so I'll remember that for next time. I kept to the cooking time of 5 minutes but think I should of left it a little longer to thicken up before adding the prawns as it seemed a bit thin but it still tasted great!

Steamed Fish with Ginger & Spring Onions

This tasted really good but I'd strongly recommend to serve with sides as it's quite a small portion. With some rice and veg aswell, it makes a great weekday meal!

Sesame Prawn Toast

I really wanted to give this a try but was a bit put off thinking it might be difficult to put together. However, it was surprisingly simple to make and I would make this again any time (all the time!) now I know how easy it is! A really great snack, starter or side to have with any of the other Noodle Legend dishes.

Greens in Oyster Sauce

Nice easy side dish. Quite simple but perfect to accompany another dish and more interesting than plain steamed veg! I also really like that you can use any greens that you have in, meaning I now rustle up a really simple and delicious side dish, using whatever I've got in the fridge at the time!

Joan

Smashed Cucumber 

This is so refreshing and flavourful and the flavours are spot on! It's a brilliant side to have with some of the stronger dishes as it adds a bit of relief and a great crunchy texture.

Hot & Sour Soup

This tasted spot on, just as I would expect from a Chinese restaurant. It was really delicious! The egg and tofu help it to feel like a substantial main course and the flavours are incredible.

Spicy Chonqing Beef Noodles

Addictive! This was my favourite dish out of all the ones that we tested. Everything came together really nicely and the flavour was perfectly balanced. I added some spring onions as a garnish to make it look more appetising.

Crispy Prawn Wontons

These are brilliant - they look really yummy and were fun to assemble. We used an airfryer to cook them which was a bit of an error as it made them a bit dry inside. I would recommend either steaming or deep frying. They aren't the quickest or easiest to make but I would definitely make them again for a celebration or a family dinner.

Pork & Prawn Dumplings

These dumplings were really nice. I steamed them so they stayed really juicy - I would definitley reccomend cooking them this way to keep them tender.