Maggie Rice

Let me start this post with a riddle. What takes 2 minutes to cook and yet is one of the hardest leftovers to use? 

And the answer is MAGGI !

I bet most of you never faced this problem because Maggi noodles are consumed faster than they are cooked. I would have never faced the leftover situation with this delicious instant noodles had it been just me eating them. I cooked a lot of them for a group and well, some of them were on diet! So here I was, with a bowl full of cooked Maggie noodles lying in the pan and a tummy so full, it refused to have any more of them.

The first thought that came to my mind was to just throw them away; of course wasting food is never an admirable thing to do. I remembered, Hemal Shah, a friend of mine had mentioned that she cooked rice with maggi masala (the seasoning packet that comes with the noodles) and her family just loves it.  I figured if the seasoning could be used for another recipe why not use the leftover Maggie, which already had the seasoning in it. I called my friend who willingly shared her recipe. Adding a few more ingredients, I had this utterly delicious Maggie rice for dinner and now I know what to do with leftover instant noodles and after reading this post, you will too!

Ingredients

Cooked Maggi noodles – 1 packet

Cooked white rice – 1.5 cups

Yellow bell pepper (chopped) – half a cup 

Diced green chilies – 2 small ones

Diced ginger – 1 tsp

Finely chopped garlic – 1 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Red chili powder - 1/2 tsp

Garam masala – ½ tsp

Olive oil – 2 tsp

Salt and pepper

Heat the oil in a skillet and sauté the yellow bell peppers, green chillies, ginger and garlic on a high flame for about a minute. Add the rice, noodles, salt and spices and mix well. Lower heat and cook for a couple of minutes till the flavors blend, stirring all the while. Sprinkle cracked pepper and serve hot.

Serving suggestions

·         With Chips/ Papad/Yogurt

Tips

·         You can use any color bell pepper to make the dish more colorful.

·         The ratio of rice to noodles doesn’t really matter too much when you are using leftovers!

·         Go easy on the green chilies if you can’t tolerate spice.

  Interesting fact

·         Apart from India “Maggi” is also very popular in Malaysia.