- Season
- Available all year as a shelf-stable dry product; most used in the colder months, when broth-based soups are cooked more often
- Price
- Low
- Nutrition per 100 g
- 384 kcal
- 14.2 g protein
- 4.4 g fat
- 71.3 g carbs
Soup Noodles
Pasta
Soup Noodles
Nudle polévkové are the thin, dried wheat noodles sold in bags in Czech shops to cook into clear soups such as beef broth (hovězí vývar) and chicken or hen broth (slepičí vývar). Most are egg pasta (těstoviny vaječné) made from soft wheat flour, water and dried egg, and many are coloured lightly with turmeric.
In practice
How to store
- On the counter
Keep the unopened bag in a cool, dry, dark cupboard, away from direct sunlight and moisture, and use by the date on the pack. Once opened, fold the bag tightly or move the noodles to a closed container to keep out humidity and pantry pests.
- In the fridge
Dry noodles do not need refrigeration. Cooked noodles should be cooled quickly and kept covered in the fridge (at or below 5 °C), ideally separately from the broth, and eaten within 1–2 days.
- In the freezer
Freezing dry noodles is unnecessary. You can freeze broth for later, but freeze it without the noodles: cooked fine noodles go mushy when thawed, so cook a fresh batch when you reheat the soup.
How to choose
Read the ingredient list. The word "vaječné" means the noodles contain egg. Egg pasta usually lists wheat flour, dried egg (sušená vejce) and sometimes turmeric (kurkuma). Egg-free soup pasta (bezvaječné) is also sold, as is a smaller range of corn-based soup noodles for people avoiding wheat. Choose the shape for the soup: hair-thin nudle vlasové cook in 1–3 minutes and suit a delicate chicken broth, while rolled or slightly wider noodles hold up better in a heartier beef broth. Look for an intact bag and unbroken strands. A lot of dust and broken pieces at the bottom suggests rough handling. Turmeric is added for colour, so a deep yellow colour on its own does not tell you how much egg the noodles contain.
What to swap in
Best swap
Other dried Czech soup pasta (těstoviny do polévky) such as small stars (hvězdičky), alphabet letters (písmenka) or short thin noodles, or Italian fine pasta such as capellini or vermicelli broken into short lengths.
In a pinch
Broken spaghetti, or a small quantity of rice cooked in the broth. For a gluten-free soup, use corn-based soup noodles or rice noodles, checking the label for gluten.
Preparation
Many Czech packs tell you to cook the noodles separately in salted water rather than in the soup itself, so the broth stays clear. A typical instruction is 1 litre of boiling salted water per 100 g of noodles. Cook hair-thin noodles for about 1 minute, then leave them covered off the heat for another minute. Rolled noodles take around 3–5 minutes. Drain, rinse briefly and add to the hot soup just before serving. Cooking the noodles in the pot of broth also works, but the starch they release will make the soup slightly cloudy. Plan on roughly 15–25 g of dry noodles per serving of soup. Very fine strands overcook quickly, so add them at the end and serve straight away.
Don't toss it
Save the broken pieces and dust from the bottom of the bag and stir them straight into a vegetable or leftover-broth soup at the end of cooking, where they thicken it slightly. Leftover cooked noodles can be fried with egg in a pan (like a simple noodle omelette), or added to the next day's soup at the last moment.
In the kitchen
Cooking
Boiling is the standard method: in salted water, then added to the broth, or straight in the broth for a home-style, slightly thicker soup. In Czech cooking these noodles go into clear meat and vegetable broths, sometimes alongside liver or semolina dumplings. They are also used in simple everyday soups and in children's meals. Leftovers can be pan-fried with egg. Because they are so thin, they are rarely baked or served as a main pasta dish. Wider egg noodles (nudle vaječné široké) are better for that.
Goes well with
- Beef Broth (Hovězí Vývar)
- Hen or Chicken Broth (Slepičí Vývar)
- Carrot
- Parsley Root
- Celeriac
- Fresh Parsley
- Lovage
- Liver Dumplings (Játrové Knedlíčky)
- Semolina Dumplings (Krupicové Noky)
- Nutmeg
- Black Pepper
What it is
Nudle polévkové are the thin, dried wheat noodles sold in bags in Czech shops to cook into clear soups such as beef broth (hovězí vývar) and chicken or hen broth (slepičí vývar). Most are egg pasta (těstoviny vaječné) made from soft wheat flour, water and dried egg, and many are coloured lightly with turmeric. They come as very fine, hair-thin strands (nudle vlasové), as short flat rolled noodles (nudle válcované), or as thin vermicelli. Czech producers such as Zátkovy těstoviny (Cerealis, Litovel), Babiččiny nudle (Druid CZ, Ševětín) and Vojáčkovy nudle (Slušovice) sell them in packs of roughly 300 to 500 g. They are a dry pantry ingredient, not a finished dish. In the Czech kitchen they are what turns a clear meat broth into a filling soup, often served with sliced carrot, parsley root and chopped parsley.
How it tastes
Mild and neutral, with a gentle wheat taste and a faint richness from the egg. The noodles are meant to take on the flavour of the broth rather than add a strong taste of their own. The finest strands turn soft and silky within a minute or two. Rolled and wider soup noodles stay a little more tender-firm. Turmeric, where used, adds a golden-yellow colour but no noticeable flavour.
Common questions
Should I cook soup noodles in the broth or separately?
Do nudle polévkové contain egg?
Why are some soup noodles so yellow?
How long do soup noodles take to cook?
Are soup noodles gluten-free?
Can I freeze soup with noodles in it?
Deep dive
3 min read
Varieties
Hair-thin noodles (nudle vlasové)
are very fine, long or loosely coiled strands, usually made with egg. They cook in 1–3 minutes and are the classic choice for a delicate chicken or hen broth.
Rolled soup noodles (nudle válcované polévkové)
are short, flat, thin noodles made from rolled dough. They are a little more substantial and suit beef broth.
Vermicelli
is the name some brands use for fine round soup strands, often sold short or in nests.
Egg and egg-free versions.
Most Czech soup noodles are egg pasta (vaječné). Egg-free (bezvaječné) versions made only from flour and water are also on sale.
Corn and children's soup pasta.
Shops also stock corn-based soup noodles and small shapes such as stars (hvězdičky) or letters aimed at children. These are related products sold in the same section.
Related but different products.
Wide egg noodles (nudle vaječné široké) are meant for main dishes rather than soup. Asian instant noodles and noodle-soup dishes such as ramen or pho are separate products and are not what a Czech shopper means by nudle polévkové.
History
Noodles in broth have long been a part of everyday Czech home cooking. Traditionally, cooks rolled egg-and-flour dough thin and cut it into fine homemade noodles (domácí nudle). Industrially dried, bagged soup noodles now largely replace this work. Several Czech producers still market their soup noodles on traditional or "grandmother's" recipes, which shows how closely the product is tied to Sunday broth in Czech households.
Science
Soup noodles are made from soft (common) wheat flour. The gluten proteins form an elastic network when the dough is kneaded, and this is what holds the thin strands together. The dough is either pressed through dies under pressure or rolled into thin sheets and cut, and then dried down to low moisture: Czech quality rules for dried pasta set a maximum moisture of 13 %. This low moisture is what makes the noodles shelf-stable. Egg adds protein and fat, which make the noodles firmer and richer and help keep fine strands from falling apart. Czech rules once required egg pasta to contain at least two eggs per kilogram of flour, but the current decree (18/2020 Sb.) no longer sets a minimum egg content, only that eggs or egg products are used. In boiling water the starch gelatinises and some of it leaches out, so cooking the noodles directly in the broth makes the soup cloudier and slightly thicker. Very thin strands have a large surface area compared with their volume, which explains both their very short cooking time and how easily they overcook.
Sourcing and ethics
Most soup noodles in Czech shops are made in Czechia from wheat flour and dried egg, and several well-known brands come from domestic producers. If egg welfare matters to you, check whether the producer states the egg source, as EU egg-farming rules apply. Check how much egg the noodles contain, too: Czech product testing (reported by Czech Radio and the Czech quality-norm initiative Cechovní normy) has found that some products sold as egg pasta contain very little egg, and current Czech law no longer sets a minimum. Labels must declare wheat (gluten) and egg as allergens under EU Regulation 1169/2011. Also look for warnings about possible traces of other allergens, such as soy or mustard, from shared production lines.