Keeping Noodles Warm?

[sapphirestar]

Hi everyone-- Next weekend I'll be feeding about 21 people for our son's 13th birthday (now I'll have 3 teens in the house!). This is his family-party, and I'm going to be making a huge vat or two of chicken noodle soup-- these are not very adventurous eaters. I was thinking it might be fun to offer three different kinds of noodles, cooked separately, and then everyone could just add the noodles they desire to their soup.

So I'm trying to figure out the logistics. If I boil up three different pots of noodles, there is probably going to be some "sitting around" time once the noodles have drained. I don't want to have the bowls of noodles stick together in three different sticky clumps. I can cover the bowls to hold in some moisture, but I'm not really sure if this is going to work. Is there a way to keep the noodles pliable and warm? Crockpot on low? Put oil on the noodles?

If someone has ideas or experience with this, I'd love to hear about it!

TIA

[RebelYell18]

I would put some of the broth from the soup in with the noodles to coat them. I think it would be better than oil because it will have the flavor of the soup and no added fat. Out of curiosity, what kinds of noodles are you going to have? Sounds like fun! Good luck!

[BucknellAlum]

Could you time it that the noodles stay in the boiling water right up until you serve? Then you could drain off most of the water and give everyone a slotted spoon or tongs to pull their noodles out with.

Otherwise, I think you'd have to douse them with a lot of oil.

I am not too familiar with holding stuff in the crockpot. My mom does it all the time, but my CP instructions say not to reheat food in them.

[HealthyinMN]

So I'm trying to figure out the logistics. If I boil up three different pots of noodles, there is probably going to be some "sitting around" time once the noodles have drained. I don't want to have the bowls of noodles stick together in three different sticky clumps.
TIA

All it would take is a very quick dunk in boiling water and those sticky clumps will release nicely!

[Kathy B]

Actually, if your soup is plenty hot, just adding them to the broth should loosen them up just fine.

[PamN]

While I agree that dunking the noodles in boiling water or the broth itself would loosen them up and heat them through, I think the OP wants to keep them not-stuck-together in the three serving bowls, so each guest can add the type and amount they want.

A toss in a little oil right after cooking and draining is the only way I know to achieve that. They shouldn't get too oily, and they should warm up just fine in the individual soup bowls -- unless people go overboard and add more noodles than soup.

If you toss them in some of the soup broth rather than oil, they will slurp that up as they sit and bond together.

[sapphirestar]

Hey, thanks so much! Maybe I'll try a test batch of noodles this week with the oil to see how little I can use to get the right results.

And I'll probably use some egg noodles (for the traditionalists), then some fun shapes, maybe bow-ties and noodles shaped like o's to entice the kids to eat soup.