Noodle Journey Episode 121: Nongshim Potato Noodle Soup

Today I’m reviewing Nongshim Potato Noodle Soup, a Nongshim variety that puts the potato starch content of the noodles front and center. While Nongshim’s noodles often include a little potato starch for chew, this recipe leans on it as a primary ingredient. Despite the name, this is not gluten-free; there is wheat gluten in the noodle. The packaging also does not make it clear what kind of broth this is, so I’m going in curious to see where the flavor lands.

You can generally find this for about $7-10 per four-pack at H Mart and other Asian grocery stores or online. Sodium is 1,560 mg, and, unlike many Nongshim packs, this one is labeled as a single serving. Inside, there’s a square noodle block, a powdered soup base, and a vegetable packet labeled cabbage and bok choy (and surprisingly there’s no green onion listed, a rarity for instant noodles). The soup base is heavy on vegetable content, with MSG, garlic, onion, tomato, mushroom, and additional vegetable extracts like spinach and zucchini. It appears to be vegan, but please doublecheck the label if that matters to you. This comes only as a pillow pack; there is no cup version.

Noodles:
Really good. They’re springy and starchy in the familiar Nongshim way, but despite the promise on the label, they’re not drastically different from their regular wheat noodles. It’s a thoroughly satisfying texture, but it’s just not the massive revelation over the standard wheat noodles that I was expecting.
• 9/10

Spiciness:
This is mildly spicy, even though the package doesn’t really warn you that it is. This is typical of Korean soups (with the general exception of Gomtang). I get a little tickle at the back of the throat, but it’s nothing I would call more than “mild.”
• 2.5/10

Overall:
The broth surprised me in a good way. The aroma reminds me of kind of a sour cream note even though there is none in the ingredients, and from a flavor perspective, it comes through as a rich, savory vegetable soup with mushroom up front, plenty of onion, and a decent amount of salt. The cabbage and bok choy add sweetness and a hint of pleasant bitterness that plays well with the mushroom-and-“sour-cream” profile I kept getting. I would have liked a few more vegetables in the packet, and the noodles aren’t markedly different from Nongshim’s usual, but the flavor is still really nice. This is an easy repurchase for me and one of the tastiest vegetable-leaning broths I’ve had from Nongshim in a while.

• 9/10