Noodle Soup on Shabbos: Cooking?

Question

I have a friend who makes ramen style noodle soup on Shabbos where you add hot water from an urn to a cup of dry contents including noodles. The rabbi my parents followed when I was growing up said this is forbidden because the hot water cooks the noodles, and this is what my family practiced. My friend follows a rabbi who permits it if you use a kli sheni and then transfer the water into the noodles. She served soup like this to all her Shabbos guests, and all the other ones accepted it. To not offend her, I declined by saying I was not in the mood for soup at the time. What should I do in the future if I am faced with a situation like this?

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Answers

  1. The Just Ask! - AskTheRabbi.org Team

    The issue of these kinds of soups on Shabbos is complicated. There are two main Halachic issues. The first is that the noodles may not have been cooked beforehand (if they are, that would remove one of the problems). They may have only been prepared using a hot-air system, which would mean that the general Halachic rule that “once something has been cooked it cannot be cooked again” is not applicable, as hot-air is not considered to be a method of cooking according to the Halacha.

    Aside from that, there is a second issue. Even if the noodles, were cooked with water during the production process, they very often come with herbs, such as parsley flakes, which have not been cooked at all! If that is the case, there is a problem of cooking them on Shabbos. According to some opinions, it would be permissible to prepare such a soup on Shabbos – but only by using a Kli Shlishi, not a Kli Sheni.

    If your friend is open to looking into the issues, I would suggest that you recommend that she read an article about the Halachic issues on the OU site:
    oukosher.org/halacha-yomis/on-shabbos-may-i-prepare-a-cup-of-noodles-from-an-instant-soup-by-pouring-hot-water-from-an-urn-onto-them/?category

    If you feel that your friend may not take kindly to your drawing her attention to the potential problems, I would suggest that you continue doing as you did, and that you not eat the soup when you are spending Shabbos together.

    Best wishes from the AskTheRabbi.org Team