Ever since Master S and myself came across Spicy Cumin Noodle Soup from Noodle Warriors in the new Hawkers Lane Chatswood, Sydney, I have been frantically trying to mimic the flavours. We fell head over heels in love with this soup. The best way to describe the flavour is as a taco flavoured soup. Amazing.
I’ve made so many versions of it to date and I think this one is the closest. It’s super spicy with a magnificent cumin and sichuan pepper hit (don’t you just love that tingly, mouth numbing effect you get from sichuan pepper!) The lamb is fall apart tender with the vegetables adding the sweetness that compliments the flavours of the cooking broth.
This soup is traditionally served with smashed noodles, which are handmade noodles torn into rough strips. They are quite thick and play an important part in this soup, so this will be next on the agenda.
I used a slow cooker but you can certainly make this in the oven, just keep it to about 100°c/210°f. The original soup is time absorbing but make sure you freeze the leftover cooking broth from the lamb and you will have an amazing soup flavour base to use in other soup dishes.
INGREDIENTS
Lamb spice rub:
Leg of lamb, deboned and cut into 3 or 4 smaller chunks
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp white pepper
2 tsp cumin seeds – dry roasted and then roughly ground
2 tsp sichuan peppercorns – dry roasted and then roughly ground
1 tsp coriander seeds – dry roasted and then roughly ground
2 tsp chilli flakes
1 tbs cornflour
Cooking liquid:
1 cup water
2 tbs light soy sauce
1 tbs rice wine vinegar
1 tbs light soy sauce
1/2 tsp dark soy sauce
1 tsp toasted sesame oil
5 cloves garlic, cut into quarters
5cm / 2inch fresh ginger, sliced into 5 pieces
4 long red chillies, cut length ways in half
1 tbs cumin, ground
2 tsp coriander, ground
2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tbs brown sugar
1/2 tsp black pepper, ground
Soup:
4 cups of quality beef stock (chicken stock can be used for a milder broth)
3 leaves of cabbage
1 leek, sliced in half and washed well
4 coriander roots with stems, bruised
1 red chilli, keep whole but cut a couple of slits into it to release the flavour and some heat
4 spring onions, 2 sliced on a diagonal and 2 used in the soup broth
Roasted vegetables – I used pumpkin, carrot and sweet potato cut into a mouthful or two sizes.
Handful of baby spinach
ramen noodles or other asian wheat noodle – aim for a handful of cooked noodles per person
Method
Mix all the ingredients of the spice rub together and then rub all over the lamb. Leave to marinate for at least a couple of hours in the fridge. Ideally do this the night before so it’s ready to pop into your slow cooker in the morning.
Mix together all the ingredients of the cooking liquid into your slow cooker and turn on low.
Brown the spice rubbed lamb with a bit of oil on all sides and place in the slow cooker.
NOTE No.1: It’s important to do this in batches so as not to stew the meat.
NOTE No.2: Once you have placed a batch of browned meat into the slow cooker add about 1/2 cup water to the pan to deglaze the bottom and then add this to the slow cooker… Do not waste that developed flavour on the bottom of the fry pan. If you do three batches of meat then you will be doing three de-glazings. Remember to add more oil to the deglazed pan before cooking more meat.
Cook for 6-7 hours on low. Turn the lamb over at about the 3 hour mark.
Once cooked, remove the amazingly tender lamb and set aside in a bowl. Reserve the cooking liquid.
Soup construction:
Heat the stock, cabbage leaves, 2 spring onions, leek, coriander and chilli in a medium pot or wok and leave to come to a simmer with the lid off. This will just sit there getting more flavourful as you prep the rest of the soup.
Remove the lamb from the slow cooker and place the reserved cooking broth into a pan. Reduce the liquid to half. Taste it … You want it quite hot with spice and a nice salt hit with the fragrant flavours coming through. Add more soy sauce for saltiness and sugar for sweetness if needed.
Have your roasted vegetables ready, the baby spinach rinsed and ready, the sliced spring onions ready.
Slice the lamb into pieces that will be a mouthful or two.
Cook your noodles as per instructions on the packet, taking note that they do not use salted water. Reduce the cook time by 1 minute. As soon as the timer goes off, drain the noodles and rinse under cold water to stop the cooking process.
Now you are ready to compile this delicious soup…
Remove the spring onions, leek, coriander and chilli from the chicken broth.
Using a strainer, dunk a handful of noodles into the broth and then place into a bowl. Repeat for the amount of bowls you are making.
Dunk the roasted vegetables into the broth and divide evenly among the bowls.
Place the baby spinach directly in the bowls.
The lamb will probably be quite warm still so place it directly into the bowls (dunk in the chicken broth if stone cold)
Pour over the chicken broth, add 3 tablespoons or more of the cooking stock over the top of each bowl and sprinkle on the sliced shallots.
Serve immediately.
If you feeling so inclined, drizzle over some of your favourite chilli oil for extra punch 🙂
- Leg of lamb, deboned and cut into 3 or 4 smaller chunks
- ½ tsp garlic powder
- ½ tsp white pepper
- 2 tsp cumin seeds – dry roasted and then roughly ground
- 2 tsp sichuan peppercorns - dry roasted and then roughly ground
- 1 tsp coriander seeds – dry roasted and then roughly ground
- 2 tsp chilli flakes
- 1 tbs cornflour
- 1 cup water
- 2 tbs light soy sauce
- 1 tbs rice wine vinegar
- 1 tbs light soy sauce
- ½ tsp dark soy sauce
- 1 tsp toasted sesame oil
- 5 cloves garlic, cut into quarters
- 5cm / 2inch fresh ginger, sliced into 5 pieces
- 3 red chillies, cut length ways in half
- 1 tbs cumin, ground
- 2 tsp coriander, ground
- 2 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1 tbs brown sugar
- ½ tsp black pepper, ground
- 4 cups of quality beef stock (chicken stock can be used for a milder broth)
- 3 leaves of cabbage
- 1 leek, sliced in half and washed well
- 4 coriander roots with stems, bruised
- 1 red chilli, keep whole but cut a couple of slits into it to release the flavour and some heat
- 4 spring onions, 2 sliced on a diagonal and 2 used in the soup broth
- Roasted vegetables – I used pumpkin, carrot and sweet potato cut into a mouthful or two sizes.
- Handful of baby spinach
- Ramen noodles or other asian wheat noodle – aim for a handful of cooked noodles per person
- Mix all the ingredients of the spice rub together and then rub all over the lamb. Leave to marinate for at least a couple of hours in the fridge. Ideally do this the night before so it’s ready to pop into your slow cooker in the morning.
- Mix together all the ingredients of the cooking liquid into your slow cooker and turn on low.
- Brown the spice rubbed lamb with a bit of oil on all sides and place in the slow cooker.
- NOTE No.1: It's important to do this in batches so as not to stew the meat.
- NOTE No.2: Once you have placed a batch of browned meat into the slow cooker add about ½ cup water to the pan to deglaze the bottom and then add this to the slow cooker... Do not waste that developed flavour on the bottom of the fry pan. If you do three batches of meat then you will be doing three de-glazings. Remember to add more oil to the deglazed pan before cooking more meat.
- Cook for 6-7 hours on low. Turn the lamb over at about the 3 hour mark.
- Once cooked, remove the amazingly tender lamb and set aside in a bowl. Reserve the cooking liquid.
- Heat the stock, cabbage leaves, 2 spring onions, leek, coriander and chilli in a medium pot or wok and leave to come to a simmer with the lid off. This will just sit there getting more flavourful as you prep the rest of the soup.
- Remove the lamb from the slow cooker and place the reserved cooking broth into a pan. Reduce the liquid to half. Taste it ... You want it quite hot with spice and a nice salt hit with the fragrant flavours coming through. Add more soy sauce for saltiness and sugar for sweetness if needed.
- Have your roasted vegetables ready, the baby spinach rinsed and ready, the sliced spring onions ready.
- Slice the lamb into pieces that will be a mouthful or two.
- Cook your noodles as per instructions on the packet, taking note that they do not use salted water. Reduce the cook time by 1 minute. As soon as the timer goes off, drain the noodles and rinse under cold water to stop the cooking process.
- Now you are ready to compile this delicious soup…
- Remove the spring onions, leek, coriander and chilli from the chicken broth.
- Using a strainer, dunk a handful of noodles into the broth and then place into a bowl. Repeat for the amount of bowls you are making.
- Dunk the roasted vegetables into the broth and divide evenly among the bowls.
- Place the baby spinach directly in the bowls.
- The lamb will probably be quite warm still so place it directly into the bowls (dunk in the chicken broth if stone cold)
- Pour over the chicken broth, add 3 tablespoons or more of the cooking stock over the top of each bowl and sprinkle on the sliced shallots.
- Serve immediately.
