Low Glycemix Index Noodles Recipe

Maggi is one of my favorite foods. Whenever I am lost for ideas or plain lazy, it's the first thing I reach for. Junk food? Oh yes. But the good news is that this much-maligned childhood favorite is actually not too high on the glycemic index charts.

For those who demand evidence, these are the values from Rick Mendosa's GI lists. The GI is roughly fifty and the GL is about 11. Just for comparison's sake, the glycemic load of a similar amount of white rice -which no one considers junk food- is about 30 (that my friends, is high GL). 

	Instant noodles
	Instant 'two-minute' noodles, Maggi®	46±5		11
	(Nestlé, Australia) (1995)
	Instant 'two-minute' noodles, Maggi®	48±8		12
	(Nestlé, Auckland, New Zealand)
	Instant 'two-minute' noodles, Maggi®, all flavors	52±7		13
	(Nestlé Australia) (2005)

Now, 11 is not a terrible glycemic load value, but there are two things to keep in mind. One, the ideal GL value for a meal is 10 or less and two, Maggi is just maida. Yucky, zero-nutrition, intestine clogging maida.

So how to eat the beloved maggi, get the desired low GL and neutralize the anti-nutritive effects of maida? The answer is simple. Plenty of wonderful veggies. So here's my recipe for veggie maggi. It's hardly rocket science, but the USP of this recipe is that it is very quick and very low effort. So here goes.

Ingredients

1 packet maggi noodles (top ramen or foodles or anything of that nature will do just fine)
1 carrot (peeled and grated)
1 green/red/yellow bell pepper aka capsicum (chopped into little pieces)
1 tomato (grated)
1 onion (chopped finely)
1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper
1/2 tsp red chili powder (entirely optional. Works for me because I like to feel the food burning its way down into my stomach)
Salt to taste

Method

Heat two teaspoons of oil in a wok (kadhai). Add the chopped onions and fry for a couple of minutes. Add all the remaining chopped and grated vegetables and stir fry until the carrot changes color and becomes kinda soft.

Pour in about one and a half glasses of water, add the maggi masala and the pepper powder and the red chili powder (if you so wish) and bring the water to boil. Break up the maggi and add it to the boiling water. Lower the heat, cover the wok with a lid and let the noodles cook for 5-7 minutes. If it looks like the noodles are getting too dry or of you like soupy noodles, you can add a little extra water.

Check to see if the noodles are cooked and switch off the flame. Add as much extra salt as you like. It will need a little extra salt, because the salt in the maggi masala won't be enough for the vegetables.

This way two people can eat one packet of maggi and get lots of vegetables and I'm guessing the glycemic load of this recipe should be quite low because of the added fibre and the small amount of oil we used to fry the veggies.

So there you go. No need to feel guilty about eating maggi ever again.