How to make noodles less spicy?
Have you ever finally sat down with your freshly made bowl of noodles and taken a hearty bite only to feel like you’ve licked the stove instead? Luckily, there are a few ways to save overly spicy noodles and spare your taste buds the agony.
How to make noodles less spicy?
There are a few ways to make the noodles less spicy, like doubling up on the non-spicy ingredients or adding a little dairy or nut butter to the noodles. Other ways to make the noodles less spicy are to balance the heat with sweetness or sourness.
Read on to discover all the possible ways to make your noodles less spicy.
5 Ways to Make Noodles Less Spicy
Extremely popular in Asian countries, noodles are loved all over the world. Although making noodles at home from scratch requires some skill, you can buy all kinds of noodles at your local grocery store and make them in a matter of minutes.
But what if you make them too spicy?
Adding too much heat to your noodles, such as chili powder or even black pepper, which you didn’t know was so hot, is a common way home cooks end up making their noodles too spicy.
Here are some ways to tame the flame.
1. Double the ingredients
The easiest way to make a dish less spicy is to add other ingredients to dilute it. This goes for almost any dish you want to chill, including chili and salsa. You can add more than those already on the plate or new ingredients.
Here are some options:
- More vegetables and vegetables
- Eggs (boiled, fried, or beaten)
- Meat (chicken, pork or beef)
- normal noodles
If the noodle soup is too spicy, try adding more plain broth to reduce the heat.
2. Use a dairy product to reduce spiciness
Dairy is perhaps the most effective way to take the extreme heat out of a dish and can end up adding a lovely creaminess to your broth as an added bonus.
Transfer the noodles to a pan, add a couple tablespoons of heavy cream or sour cream, and mix well to distribute it evenly over the noodles.
You can also add cheese to the noodles. Cheese works with heat in the same way as other dairy products. If you don’t eat dairy, a splash of coconut milk will also work.
3. Sweeten to reduce heat
Adding a small amount of sugar is a good way to neutralize the spiciness of the noodles. However, you must be careful when adding sweeteners to your dish. If you add too many, you’ll have bigger problems than just reducing heat.
Maple syrup, for example, is a popular sweetener used in ramen or rice noodle dishes. Other options are honey and brown rice syrup.
If it goes well with your dish, you can make a sweet sauce to drizzle over the noodles to balance out the excess heat.
You can mix soy sauce with honey or replace the latter with brown sugar. In any case, an easy sauce made with just two ingredients is more than capable of making your noodles less spicy.
When you add syrups or sugar to your noodle dish, make sure you use it in some other type of sauce, such as teriyaki or soy sauce. Do not add these ingredients directly to the dish.
What you can add directly to the dish are naturally sweet ingredients like tomatoes and corn.
4. Balance spiciness with acidity
Adding more acidity to the noodle dish is another way to balance the spiciness in it.
You can add sourness to noodles with the help of citrus juices. A small amount of lemon or lime juice will not only balance the heat, but also enhance other flavors in the dish.
Apart from citrus juices, the different types of vinegars are also widely used ingredients to add acidity to a dish.
5. Add a tablespoon of nut butter
If your Asian-style noodles have been too spicy, adding nut butter will make all the difference.
If you’ve never tried butter walnut noodles, you may think the walnut flavor will be overwhelming. However, a small amount of peanut or almond butter will not overshadow the rest of the ingredients, it will simply reduce the heat.
You can also use tahini for this purpose.
When you add nut butter to your noodles, make sure they are not cold. The butter will blend easily into the hot noodles and blend well with the other ingredients in the dish.
What to drink with the spicy noodles
You may not want to add anything to your dish to tone down the spiciness. In fact, many people enjoy eating noodles with a spicy twist.
However, in this case too, you need to know what to drink with the spicy noodles to balance the flavor. You should at least know which drinks to keep on hand in case you can’t take the heat or need a little readjustment.
Before you go ahead and grab a bottle of cold water to ease the heat, we’ll tell you why that’s not a smart move.
The science behind spicy food
You can’t tone down the spiciness of the noodles with water. It is explained by simple chemistry.
The reason noodles are spicy is a chemical called capsaicin. Capsaicin is the active ingredient responsible for the spiciness of foods. It is present in the red chile, cayenne and jalapeño, and other varieties.
Sweet peppers also contain some capsaicin, but not enough to cause a burning sensation.
Capsaicin binds to a specific receptor on the tongue and sends signals to the brain. That’s why you have the feeling that your mouth is burning.
Capsaicin is an oily component. Therefore, the water will not do anything to it. It can relieve pain for a few seconds if you drink it cold. But it can also make things worse.
Water not only doesn’t mix with capsaicin, it can spread it out even more.
To dissolve the capsaicin, you need something oily or greasy. A small amount of alcohol is also capable of dealing with this compound.
Drink milk with spicy noodles
Having a glass of milk handy is a good way to take the heat out of the dish if you like the flavor but not the heat.
Capsaicin dissolves in fat, which is why milk is the most effective way to relieve itching. You can either drink it or simply rinse your mouth to get rid of the heat of the spicy noodles.
Pairing the wine with the spicy noodles
While milk is certainly a method that works, it’s not exactly elegant when you have guests over and serve them a simple glass of milk.
If you want to combat the spiciness of your noodles with a drink as fancy as wine, there are three simple rules to follow to make it work.
- Avoid high-alcohol wines - To tame spicy noodles, low- to medium-alcohol wines are best suited. For one, too much alcohol can make the spiciness more pronounced. On the other hand, you can’t drink much high-alcohol wine, and you may need a few more sips to get over the spiciness of the noodles.
- Look for acidic and sweet wines - Wines with higher acidity complement spicy food well. They contrast well with the heat and can make eating spicy noodles much more enjoyable. White wines that have crisp acidity can be the ideal drink for spicy noodles. Drinking a tangy white wine with spicy noodles will taste like a splash of lemon juice on your plate. In addition to acidity, sweetness is another criterion that you should look for in wine if you are going to accompany it with a spicy dish. Fruity wines that have a hint of sweetness will help ease the heat and bring out the layers of flavor in the dish.
- Don’t choose sparkling wine - Drinking sparkling wine with your spicy noodles is not the way to go. Even if you have a wine that meets the rest of the criteria we have mentioned, it will not go well with spicy noodles if it is sparkling. In fact, it’s more likely to make things worse, as the fizz will add an extra layer of unpleasant sensations for your mouth to process.
While the best way to tone down the spiciness of your noodle dish is by far to add ingredients that dilute and neutralize the spiciness, drinking something acidic or fatty will also help.
You can even add just a few ingredients to remove less heat, as well as have one of the drinks mentioned above to keep just enough heat in your dish to make it enjoyable.
We have given you the best options to save your spicy noodles, and now we leave it to your personal taste.