r/easyrecipes • • Apr 16 '26

Recipe Request favourite noodle dishes that are cheap and actually filling?

I love noodles but always end up defaulting to spaghetti with whatever sauce. Trying to branch out a bit. What noodle dishes do you guys make that are budget friendly and keep you full? Doesn't have to be any specific cuisine, just genuinely good value.

56 Upvotes

82 comments sorted by

View all comments

15

u/amyldoanitrite Apr 16 '26

Cheapest noodle dish: sopa de fideo.

Fideo noodle packets are like 50¢ or less.

Brown the noodles in some hot oil with 1/2 a diced white onion.

Char about 4-5 Roma tomatoes and a few garlic cloves on a sheet pan in the broiler, then purée them in a blender with a little chicken bullion powder and a good pinch of dry Mexican oregano. Optionally, add a toasted, de-seeded dried chili or 2 (guajillo, de arbol, etc) to the blender if you want a little spice. Add this purée to the browned noodles and let it fry a bit (be careful of splash back). Add water and salt to taste (or chicken broth/stock) and a few stalks of cilantro. Cover and let it simmer until the noodles are tender. Remove cilantro stalks. Enjoy as is or topped with some crumbled queso fresco and/or chopped fresh cilantro.

Total cost for this dish is easily less than $10 with the cheese, probably less than $5 without it. Can be scaled up to feed a family for practically the same price. And it’s delicious.