Rice noodles

[Terry Morris]

I'm planning on using a lot of rice noodles for an upcoming trip. I use these a lot at home. The directions tell you to just soak them in hot water, but I have always found that they never get cooked thru and that I usually have to reheat the pot to soften them.

At high altitude, with the low boiling point, cooking them through could be even more of a problem. I really want to avoid the reheat process as there will be several of us sharing a stove. I thought to cook and dehydrate the noodles ahead of time to speed up the process, but now I'm thinking that they may have already been cooked and dried in the manufacturing process, and that dehydrating would be a waste of time.

Does anybody know if rice noodles are precooked, or figured out a way to deal with this dealt with this problem on the trail?

[Sarah Kirkconnell]

Use as thin as you can – the Vermicelli-style ones work best over say, Pad Thai style or Pad Kee wide noodles.

While they are technically cooked and only need to be soaked I feel that often they need a second cooking – pan frying for example. The really thin ones don't need this step.

[Dicentra OPW]

I've had good luck putting the smaller versions (like Sarbar mentions) in freezer and just adding boiling water. Put in a cozy for 5-10 minutes. Squish a couple of times to make sure the noodles aren't sticking.

Note: this has been done nearly at sea level.

[Christopher Holden]

Wai Wai brand vermicelli-style rice noodles rehydrate in water heated by the sun. I let it sit on the dashboard of my truck for about 30 minutes with a low sodium boullion cube and some chicken-wannabe TVP for a late morning snack yesterday before the race. Elevation was about 1700 feet above sea level (Bristol, TN).

[Sarah Kirkconnell]

Wai Wai is the thinnest I have come across. Love them!

[Author]

Posts