What to Serve with Noodle Soup (21 ideas)

Whether you're looking for what to serve with Chinese chicken noodle soup, turkey ramen, garlic butter pasta spaghetti, or Thai drunken noodles with beef, here are the best Asian side dishes for noodles. From homemade salad, tuna fritters, to Korean kimchi banchan and more, for the best easy family dinners.

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Appetizers
Salad
Mushrooms
Tofu
Chicken
Pork
Snacks
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Since noodles are a carb, I'll be focusing on meat and vegetable side dishes, instead of ideas such as rice etc.

Appetizers

These easy Asian finger foods are some of the best things to serve with noodles as they're full of flavour but won't make you so full you can't enjoy the main meal.

Cheese Wonton

Cream cheese wontons

These ultra crispy cream cheese wontons are stuffed with the most delicious filling and are so easy to make. These cream cheese rangoons by Dinner at The Zoo taste like they came from a restaurant!

Click here for this cream cheese wonton recipe.

Chinese Meatballs

Dipping a Chinese meatball into a bowl of spicy mayo,

Asian Pork Meatballs

This delicious Asian Pork Meatballs recipe makes it so easy to whip up a weekday dinner. The meatballs are so versatile, you can pan-fry them, cook them in soup, or add them to a tomato pasta sauce!

Click here for the Chinese pork balls.

Teriyaki Chicken Balls

A pile of chicken tofu meatballs on a plate of rice.

Teriyaki Meatballs 照り焼き豆腐ハンバーグ

This Easy Teriyaki Meatballs recipe 照り焼き豆腐ハンバーグ is a popular Japanese side dish. The juicy and fluffy chicken meatballs coated in the umamilicious savory sauce will taste just as good-or even better- than what you get at your favorite Japanese restaurant! (No breadcrumbs used.)

Click here for the Japanese chicken meatballs recipe.

A wooden chopstick picking up a Japanese chicken teriyaki meatball from a plate of rice.

Salad

Spicy Cucumber Salad

Fresh salad is always a great addition to a meal but instead of avocado salad or Italian salads, why not try Spicy Cucumber salad, a very popular Chinese side dish?

Cold cucumber salad recipe

The easy Chinese cold cucumber salad recipe is delicious and full of spicy flavor. Best of all, it only requires 4-ingredients and takes 5-10 minutes to make.

Click here for the Chinese cucumber salad.

Close-up of red spicy asian cucumber salad.

Japanese Salad

Japanese spinach and tomato salad wiht onion dressing pin.

Japanese Summer Salad

This easy Japanese Summer Salad is a light and refreshing dish with the best delicious dressing sauce made from onions (玉ねぎドレッシング.) It can be made vegetarian or bulked up with crab sticks- I love the tangy, savory, and umamilicious sauce so much, we have this Asian salad dressing for dinner every week! It goes well with spinach, carrot, cucumbers, tomatoes, and more. (No Ginger, Garlic, Peanut, or Sesame.)

Click here for the spinach tomato salad.

Japanese summer salad with onion dressing.

Mango Salad

Mango Cucumber Salad (Asian)

This Mango Cucumber Salad (Asian recipe) is a light and refreshing side dish full of tropical flavor. Quick and easy, it's a sweet, savory and crunchy recipe perfect for camping or a summer barbecue. Plus, unlike many salads, there is no sour cream or olive oil used, so it's healthier and less heavy!

Click here for the Thai-inspired salad recipe.

A bowl full of mangoes, tomatoes and cucumber salad.

Sweet potato fries are 1 of the most popular side dishes out there- they taste great with sambal mayo!- but why not widen your diet and try butternut squash fries instead? (Or grilled asparagus spears make super healthy veggie fries!)

Mushrooms

Mushroom recipes make for some of the best side dishes as they tend to cook very quickly.

Expert Tip: Just remember to rinse them lightly instead of soaking, as the mushrooms will absorb all the water like a sponge (and won't cook up as well.)

Quick Eryngii Mushrooms (3-ingredients)

A 25-minute, easy to make and delicious eryngii mushroom recipe. These have a nice meaty texture which make them great meat substitutes for vegan meals.

Click here for the king trumpet mushrooms recipe.

A plate of seared mushrooms tossed in a butter soy sauce.

Teriyaki Mushrooms

Using chopsticks to pick up teriyaki shimeji mushrooms from a white plate.

Easy Teriyaki Mushrooms (10 Minutes)

These easy Teriyaki Mushrooms are coated in a sweet and savory sauce. On the dinner table in 10 minutes and perfect with a bowl of white rice!

Click here for the Japanese side dish recipe.

Close-up of a bowl of rice with shimeji mushrooms in teriyaki sauce.

Shimeji Shrooms

A bowl of stir-fried himeji mushrooms besides white rice.

For more Asian side dishes which use mushrooms, click here.

Shimeji mushrooms

This shimeji by Simple Living Recipes is a great side dish for seafood. The garlic, butter, and soy sauce flavors play so well with the shimeji.

Click here for the mushroom stir-fry recipe.

Tofu

Salted Egg Tofu

Tofu is a good side dish for those on a budget as it tends to be inexpensive- it also absorbs the flavour of its sauce very well. Here's a list of the best Chinese sauces and Asian sauces for tofu.

The umami-ness and creaminess of this salted egg tofu makes for a nice contrast with the lightness of the chicken soup.

Salted Egg Tofu Recipe

This salted egg tofu is an easy but delicious recipe- the fried tofu is crispy and smothered with a creamy and buttery salted egg yolk sauce that has hints of the citrusy curry leaf and the spice of the chilli. Yum!

Click here for the tofu in salted egg sauce.

Chicken

Soy Sauce Chicken Thighs

Best Poached One Pot Chinatown Soy Sauce Chicken Recipe

This Cantonese classic chicken is an easy-to-recreate-restaurant dish that can be made in 1 pot! It's also the gift that keeps giving as the leftover poaching liquid can be used for so many things (see post above). (Inspired by 4 recipes: Woks Of Life, SCMP, Burning Kitchen and Red House Spice)

Click here for 1-pot chicken.

A plate of Cantonese soy sauce with white rice and green onions.

Braised Chicken Thighs

Chicken thigh with sesame seeds, green onions, green veggies and white rice.

The above recipe is delicious, but if you don't have 2-3 hours to poach the chicken, try this quicker and easier braised chicken thigh recipe instead!

Easy Chinese Braised Soy Sauce Chicken Thighs

A simplified but still delicious version of the most popular recipe on my website (Chinatown soya sauce chicken): this easy Chinese braised soy sauce chicken thighs recipe is simple to make in one pot and done in ⅓ the time!

Click here for the Chinese soya sauce chicken.

Soy Sauce braised chicken thigh with bok choy and rice.

Baked Char Siu Chicken

Char Siu Chicken Thighs

Juicy Char Siu Chicken Thighs are baked in the oven and our favorite chicken thigh dinner for busy weeknights. You can also use this chicken thigh marinade for the grill/ BBQ. Save to your Chinese Chicken Recipes or homemade Chinese food board now.

Click here for the Chinese baked chicken recipe.

5 pieces of baked char sit chicken thighs.

Pork

Sticky Pork Ribs

3 pieces of caramelised 12345 spare ribs on a plate. — 12345 Chinese ribs taste very similar to tang Chu pai gu (vinegar ribs) but are much easier to make!

EASY 12345 Chinese Ribs (5-ingredients)

These Chinese Spare Ribs are delicious, finger-licking Asian-style pork spare ribs that are as simple to cook as 12345 (a mnemonic device that will also help you recall the recipe.) Using only the Asian pantry staples of wine, dark soy sauce, vinegar and sugar to braise the meat, with only a few minutes of active cooking, this is the best easy sticky Chinese Spare Ribs for a lazy food lover.

Click here for the easy Chinese braised pork.

Close-up of a pork rib with fingerlicking sticky sauce and caramelised bits.

Braised Pork

This is an easy 5-spice pork recipe that is one of the first recipes many Chinese Singaporeans learn to make.

Tau Yew Bak (Braised Pork in Soy Sauce)

A super easy recipe to make for a weekday dinner after work, this braised pork dish is a delicious comfort food that doesn't require much prep time.

Click here for the Singaporean pork recipe.

Close-up of a spoonful of braised pork shoulder with carrot and coriander.

Taiwanese Braised Pork

A bowl of braised pork rice with hard boiled egg and fried shallots.

Rou Zao Fan (Easy Lu Rou Fan)

Looking for an Easy Lu Rou Fan recipe for busy weeknights? Rou Zao Fan is a quick and easy ground pork version of the recipe. Deliciously savory but made in ⅓ of the time! (On the table in 30 minutes.)

Click here the Taiwanese pork recipe.

Close-up of braised minced pork with crispy shallots.

Snacks

Crispy and flaky pan fried scallion pancakes on parchment paper.

Taiwanese green onion pancake recipe (Cong you bing)

Taiwanese green onion pancake (Cong you bing), also known as Chinese scallion pancake, is a delicious savoury street snack that is easy to batch make and freeze.

Click here for the Taiwanese pancake recipe.

Dumpling Soup

Don't forget to prepare a dumpling sauce on the side to dip the dumplings into!

Easy Chinese dumpling Sauce

Chinese dumpling sauce is a real burst of flavor: it's tangy, sweet, salty, sometimes spicy, and always delicious! Even better, it can be made in 1 minute using 4 simple ingredients, making it the perfect sauce for the time-poor!

Click here for the dumpling dipping sauce recipe.