Christo’s Sunday Night Noodle Soup
This is your 2nd installation, Itamar & Dori.
Christo says, “I think the key part is that I just start throwing things into cold water and 10 minutes later it’s ready.”
Ingredients:
8oz of noodles can be soba, ramen, udon, rice noodles, whatever… it’s a pretty forgiving recipe
Fresh ginger is one of the most important ingredients for flavor
Pretty much any combination of the following, other ingredients:
Cabbage and/or other greens, carrots, mushrooms, bean sprouts, celery, summer squashes, green onions, white onions, garlic, peppers, seaweeds, corn, baby corn, kohlrabi, salad turnips, radishes, other vegetables I may be forgetting...
Approximately 1, heaping Tablespoon of miso per large bowl – may be a single type of miso or a combination of different miso pastes
Possible Garnishes (all optional):
a soft boiled egg per bowl
nutritional yeast (otherwise known, in our house, as “golden flakes” – which is much more appealing to the young and/or dubious)
soy sauce / liquid aminos
sesame oil
sriracha or other hot sauce or hot peppers
chopped cilantro and/or thai basil
thinly sliced or julienned green onions
toasted sesame seeds
gomasio / seaweed flakes
Take a stock pot with enough room in it for the amount of noodle soup you want to make. [We each usually have two bowls each and love to have some left over for Monday’s lunch.]
Put cold water in the pot and turn on the heat. Throw in a small amount of salt – not enough to make a tasty broth – just enough to help the plants’ cell walls break down a little. You’ll make it taste good later.
Add the noodles, ginger, cabbage and whatever other vegetables you have on hand, chopped as finely or coarsely as you like. Add things you’d like to be more cooked sooner and things you’d like to be less cooked later in the process. Bring it to a boil.
When the noodles are done, so is your soup. Usually it boils for a minute or less.
Ladle it into bowls. Top it with miso. Add whatever other condiments excite you.
Before eating, you may want to stir soup with your spoon or chopsticks to break up the miso.
In parting, Christo would like to reiterate, “I just turn on the heat and start throwing things in the water is the thing.”
Thank you, Christo. Your guest appearance is always appreciated.
[Photo: Gourmandelle]