Key Ingredients for Rice Cooker Vermicelli
Stock
The stock is the foundation of this dish and brings all the flavors together. You can use any kind of stock you have on hand—it’s incredibly flexible!
For this recipe, I added dried anchovies, garlic, ginger, and soy sauce to elevate the depth of flavour with minimal effort. However, if you’re feeling extra lazy, you can skip these add-ins and just use plain stock.
I generally do not like the cooked dried anchovies – they lose flavour and are a gummy, chewy texture. To easily remove from the pot, I used a soup ball strainer. Alternatively, soup bags work too.
Got leftover hot pot broth? That’s an amazing shortcut—it adds even more flavor without any extra work!
Yong Tau Foo
Yong tau foo is such a convenient option, especially here in Singapore where ready-made mixes are easy to find. They typically include items like fish balls, taupok (fried tofu puffs), crab sticks, or other stuffed tofu variations.
If you don’t have access to pre-made yong tau foo, you can easily mix and match ingredients like fish balls, crab sticks, or even quick-cooking proteins. Think sliced chicken, thinly sliced beef, tofu, or fish fillets—the possibilities are endless and totally customizable to your taste.
Vermicelli Noodles
These thin, quick-cooking rice noodles are a perfect choice for this dish. They absorb all the delicious flavours of the broth, making each bite incredibly satisfying.
The best part? There’s no need to pre-soak dried vermicelli noodles—just toss them into the pot, and they’ll cook beautifully in the broth.
Vegetables
Vegetables are a must for balancing the dish, and you can really use whatever you have in the fridge.
Personally, I love using chopped cabbage because it adds a refreshing crunch and natural sweetness to balance out the savoury flavours of the stock.
The key is timing:
Cooking Times
- Hard Vegetables (e.g., broccoli, mushrooms): Add at the beginning with yong tau foo.
- Medium Vegetables (e.g., cabbage, bok choy, green beans): Add with the vermicelli noodles.
- Leafy Vegetables (e.g., spinach): Add 1-2 minutes before the end to retain their vibrant green color.
Key Equipment
Your rice cooker is a game-changer for this recipe. As with this recipe and all other rice cooker recipes on the blog – ANY rice cooker will work, note that the cook times may vary slightly.
Of course, I love my ultra-reliable Zojirushi:
- Zojirushi NS-ZAQ10 Micom Fuzzy Logic (the exact one I purchased – this is the same as the model above; it’s labelled differently in Singapore/Southeast Asia. This is a ‘Made in Japan’ model.)
Note: The two models are the same, the names differ based on where they’re sold.
Stovetop vs. Rice Cooker
I just KNOW someone is going to ask “but I can make this over the stovetop in 10 minutes?”
Yes, but sometimes I just don’t want to fuss with watching over the stove, and the heat from the fire.
While this dish can be made on the stovetop, the rice cooker offers a hands-off approach that’s perfect for multitaskers. On the stovetop, you’ll need to simmer the stock and yong tau foo over medium heat, stir in the noodles and cabbage, and keep a close eye to prevent overcooking.
In a rice cooker, you can set it and forget it—no stirring, no stress!
