🍎 Throughout my life, I have loved many and moved on. But the one love I can never get over is a bowl of oil, masala, and maida, which we all lovingly know as Maggi. If you have had Maggi, you know that it is an elite food. It is gold you can cook and eat. Whether you are a kid, a college student, a bachelor, planning a girl’s night in, looking for a 2 AM snack while working on your project, in need of the perfect dinner for a movie night, needing comfort food, or too lazy to cook food, there is nothing better than a big, hot bowl of Maggi. The biggest lie though is the only thing Nestle advertises Maggi with: “Ready in 2 minutes”. The perfect bowl of Maggi will take you a little longer.
I, like every Indian kid out there, have been eating Maggi since I learned to chew. There are many flavors of Maggi you can find on the shelves, but Masala Spicy is the most common and my favorite. Over the years, I have learned various ways to cook Maggi and thought I would share the love. Slurrrrrp on!
“No great genius has ever existed without some touch of madness” — Aristotle.
🥘 The Dinner: The Maggi that satisfies dinner hunger. Loaded with veggies and protein.
Here is what you will need:
- Maggi
- 1 cup water per Maggi cake
- ½ tablespoon Salt
- ½ tablespoon Red Chilli
- Peas
- Corn
- Onions
- Tomatoes
- French Beans
- Protein (Paneer or Chicken)
The Procedure for Dinner Maggi:
- Caramelize the onions, saute the peas, corn, tomatoes, and beans in a pan
- Add the salt and red chili
- Cook the chicken or paneer however you want it
- Boil the water in a pot
- Add the magic masala once the water starts boiling
- Add the veggies in and let them stew for 4–5 minutes
- Add the Maggi, cover the pot and cook on a low flame for 3–4 minutes
- Once the noodles start softening, add the paneer or chicken (or both!)
- Let sit for 5 minutes after turning off the gas
Serve hot and enjoy with a chilled beer.
🍜 The Soupy: Closest the original Maggi will get to soupy noodles. A great meal for when you have a cold; opens up all the sinuses and blockages.
Ingredients:
- Maggi
- 2½ cups of water per Maggi cake
- 1 extra pouch of magic masala per cake
- Red chili powder
- Garam Masala
- Peas
- Corn
The Plan for Soupy Maggi:
- Start by boiling the water and adding the magic masala, chili powder, garam masala
- After 1–2 minutes, add the peas and corn
- Add the noodles to the pot without breaking them
- Turn the flame on low and cover the pot for 3–4 minutes
- It is easy to overcook the noodles so keep stirring and to check the noodles
- Once they are soft, pour into a bowl and enjoy warm
🏜 The Dry: The best Maggi to make when enjoying some hot chai, or to carry in a box. This is one of my favorite ones.
I would recommend using a wider pan for this since all the water needs to evaporate. I personally do not recommend adding any veggies to this since it is pretty tasty by itself, but you can add some peas or carrots to it if you REALLY love veggies.
What you need to gather:
- Maggi
- ¾ cup of water per Maggi cake
- ½ tbsp chili powder
- Oil
- Onions
- Green chili
- Peas or Carrots (optional)
The Design for Dry Maggi:
- Caramelize the onions in a pan with some oil and add the green chili
- Add water to the pan and bring it to a boil
- Add the magic masala and chili powder
- Break the noodle cake into 2 pieces and add to the pan
- Add the peas and corn into the mix
- Cover the pan for 3–4 minutes and then stir the noodles. It is really easy to burn the noodles or get them to stick to the pan, so it is important to keep them moving in the pan (Add a little bit of oil if needed)
- Serve in a plate or bowl and enjoy hot
- Add coriander to garnish
💥 The Crunchy: My all-time favorite Maggi. A little unconventional, like me.
The Elements:
- Maggi
- One cup of water for every Maggi cake
The Roadmap to Crunchy Maggi:
- Boil water and add the magic masala to it
- Break the noodle cake into 3 pieces and put one of the pieces aside
- Add two pieces of Maggi into the boiling water and cook for 4–5 minutes
- Once the noodles soften, turn the gas off
- Add the Maggi you had saved before, and cover the pot for 1 minute
- Serve in a plate and enjoy hot
Sometimes I save a tablespoon of raw Maggi and sprinkle it on top, giving extra crunchy texture to the dish.
🍽 The Bhel: One of the most creative alternatives to traditional Maggi. A crossover between a street favorite and Maggi.
The pieces:
- Maggi
- 2 tablespoon water
- Salt
- Chilli Powder
- Chaat Masala
- Oil
- Lemon juice
- Tomatoes
- Onions
- Cilantro
The Guidance to making Maggi Bhel:
- Heat oil in a pan
- Crush all the Maggi in the pack really well, no bigger than 2–3 cm pieces
- Add all the Maggi in the pan and fry it till the noodle crumbs start to look a little brown. Be sure to keep stirring to prevent them from burning
- You only need to cook them enough to get them crispy. Be careful to not burn them( a dark brown or black tone means it is burnt)
- Once the crumbs are crunchy, turn the gas off, add ½ tablespoon of water per cake and put a lid on
- Dice the tomatoes, onions, and cilantro and mix with the lemon juice, salt, chaat masala, and the chili powder
- Mix in the Maggi noodles and enjoy
Just like bhel, it gets mushy fast, so serve and devour quickly. Serve on a paper plate to get an authentic bhel experience.
🥡 The Chinese: Imagine your favorite Indo-Chinese Hakka noodles, multiplied by the taste of Maggi.
The constituents:
- Maggi
- 1 extra sachet of magic masala per noodle cake
- 1 cup of water per cake
- Salt
- Red chili powder
- Oil
- Soy Sauce
- Tomato Ketchup
- Chilli sauce
- Onions
- Carrot
- Green Chilli
- Green Bellpepper
The Nitti Gritti for Chinese Maggi:
- Boil water and add the noodles
- Cook on a low flame for 3–4 minutes
- Caramelize the onions and green chili in oil
- Finely chop the carrots and bell pepper
- Drain all the water from the noodles, and put them in a big bowl
- Add all the other ingredients to the noodles and mix. Make sure to not break the noodles while doing so
- Add 1 tablespoon of oil to the mixture
- Mix well and enjoy hot
For a more authentic Indochinese flavor, add paneer 65 or Manchurian to the noodles.
🍳 The Egged: “Sunday ho ya Monday, roz khao ande”. There are various ways to add egg to your Maggi. With both being such versatile foods, the possibilities are endless. Here are some of the ways you can add an egg to your noodles.
- Top your Maggi with a sunny side up egg
- Boil an egg and mix it in the noodles
- While boiling the noodles, break a couple of eggs in the pot and mix them in with the noodles
- Make dry Maggi, and add the yolk while cooking the noodles in the pan
- Make egg bhurji (savory scrambled eggs) and mix in cooked Maggi
- Add a soft boiled egg to soupy Maggi
- Poach an egg and lay it on top of Maggi
- Add Maggi as a filling in an omelet
Make eggs how you like them best and mix with your favorite Maggi style to create your own fusion Egg Maggi.
🧀 The Cheesy: A fusion between Mac n Cheese and Maggi. Caution: consuming this might cause heightened levels of satisfaction that even Snickers can’t satisfy.
The Units:
- Maggi
- 1 cup water per noodle cake
- Chilli Flakes
- Butter
- Shredded Cheddar or Pepper Jack Cheese
- Peas
- Corn
The Stride to Cheesy Maggi:
- Boil water and add the noodles and the veggies
- Drain the water from the noodles, and put them in a big bowl
- Mix the Magic Masala in the noodles
- Add the cheese, 2 tablespoon butter and mix well
- Make sure the cheese and butter melt and add chili flakes for garnish
Cheesy Maggi is best enjoyed with Coke and some chips.
🏘 The Street: Maggi Chow Mein with street flavor.
The things you’ll need to gather:
- Maggi
- 1 cup of water per cake
- Chilli powder
- Oil
- Schezwan sauce
- Cheese
- String beans
- Carrots
- Green Chilli
- Green Bellpepper
The things you’ll need to do for Street Maggi:
- Boil the noodles in salted water
- Finely chop the chilies, bell pepper, carrots and beans
- Heat oil in a pan and put all the veggies
- Drain the excess water from the noodles and add them to the pan
- Fry them with the rest of the veggies and add the masala
- Be generous with the oil and schezwan sauce
- Grate some cheese on top and serve in a paper plate
Serving on a paper plate and eating with a plastic fork enhances the experience.
🍞The Toast: A great snack for midday hunger. A bit of carb overload, but Maggi calories don’t count.
The components:
- Maggi
- 1 cup water per noodle cake
- Butter
- Bread
- Peas
The course of action for Toast Maggi:
- Boil the water and add the magic masala to it
- Boil the noodles for 3–4 minutes and then turn off the flame and cover the pot
- Toast a slice of bread and butter it generously
- Put the Maggi on the bread and enjoy Maggi Sandwich
Maggi Toast can be made with any kind of Maggi mentioned above
Some things that you can make your Maggi experience even better:
- Lick the bowl or plate till the last drop. It should look like the plate is spotless
- Have someone to fight over the Maggi with. That one extra noodle will taste so much better than the rest
- Watch a rom-com with hot Maggi curled up in a blanket, with the lights off
- Have your favorite drink ready to wash down the noodles
