Using noodles in blended soups?

[chuck26]

Due complications from cancer surgery, I am confined to a liquid diet for life. I have become quite adept at producing soups and smoothies, all of which must be processed with a blender. There is one thing I cannot find any reference to. I have used grains such as rice in the soups. I would like to know the affect of processing noodles in a soup. What happens?

 

[GotGarlic]

Hi and welcome to Discuss Cooking [emoji2] I'm sorry to hear about your cancer. I hope you're recovering well.

You would just end up with lots of tiny noodle bits in the soup. Puréeing it won't cause any problems.

To change up the flavor, have you ever tried congee? It's an Asian soup where rice and seasonings are cooked for so long that the rice is very soft. If you need to, you could hit it with an immersion blender.

Here's an example. Of course, you can leave out the corn and substitute something else. That's the beauty of soup [emoji2]

https://www.seriouseats.com/2014/09/dim-sum-classics-silky-comforting-congee.html

 

[pepperhead212]

Welcome to the forum! Sorry to hear about the cancer. If you are definitely going to be eating smoothies for the rest of your life, you might want to invest in something like a Vitamix, if you haven't already done this. A Vitamix will blend ingredients so fine that things like tomato skins and seeds are more or less gone - you pour it through a strainer, and nothing is there! Things like cooked noodles would more or less dissolve - it would probably thicken the soup considerably. Things like beans grind up so fine, and thicken more than when ground in a regular blender, or with an immersion blender, so you have to add some more liquid. One thing you'll find out - things will blend smoother when thicker, as when very thin, the things like seeds will bounce around in the thin liquid, while when in thick liquids, they get broken up more. This happens with ice, in smoothies - in the beginning, when thin, the ice will break up some, but small pieces will continue to bounce around, until I add more ice, and it thickens up more, and the small pieces break up, and when it gets very thick, the ice is totally ground up.

Something that I don't often do, but can be done in the Vitamix, is to "cook" soups, simply by running it on high for several minutes. I often use this heating method, when grinding up ingredients for Mexican sauces, plus, nothing grinds up chile skins and seeds finer than this.

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

I agree that noodles would simply be dissolved, and thicken the soup. You can do the same by making a roux from equal parts butter and flour. You heat them, stirring until the roux just stats to take on a little color (blonde roux). You then add broth from your soup toe the roux, stirring in a little at a time until you have a thick sauce. You then add the sauce to the entire soup. It will cause the solids to remain suspended in the soups, and not settle to the bottom of the pot. This works great for legume soups (peas, beans, lentils), tomato based soups, or any smooth and creamy soups. You can also use flavored oils, such as sesame, oe extra virgin olive oil in place of the butter, to add flavor and depth to your soups.one more thing, if you want to blend in noodles, fresh noodles will blend better than dried noodles, and taste better too.

Seeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North