Spicy Noodle Soup with Dumplings
Day Five
My husband has been feeling under the weather plus our CSA Winter share comes this week so I decided to make a spicy noodle soup to clear out the fridge and help get him back on his feet, with a kick in the chilli pants. You can put any vegetables you like into it, but I find root vegetables work best.
Ingredients:
For the Broth
1 onion -chopped
1 tblspn olive oil (thereabouts)
2 medium carrots – chopped
1 small cabbage – chopped
1/2 red pepper -chopped
2-3 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed
6 cups vegetable stock (I use Marigold reduced-salt Bouillon)
1 tsp yeast extract
splash of braggs (to taste)
toasted sesame seeds
1 Tblsp red chilli flakes.
Noodles:
You can use any asian noodles, but for this I used some millet noodles I picked up in an Asian supermarket in Flushing. They are made by Havista and take a little longer to cook than the mung bean or rice flour ones I would normally use.
Dumplings:
I guess you could say I cheated – my husband was sick, so I was on primary baby-care duty, okay? Only having fun -not defensive at all. HONEST 🙂
The dumplings are the vegetarian ones (Thai Vegetable Gyoza) from Trader Joe’s. These are great to keep in the freezer for emergencies. If I hadn’t put them in the soup, I would normally steam them in the microwave and make a dipping sauce from Braggs, Sesame Oil, Dried red chillies and toasted sesame seeds. As it is, with this, I just steamed them in the microwave for a couple of minutes, put them to one side and added to the soup once it was all cooked. Next time, I will try to make these from scratch!
Here we go:
1. Saute the chopped onion on a medium heat, in the olive oil for five minutes, until it becomes transparent. If it starts browning, turn the heat down (unless you like it that way)
2. Add the root vegetables and the pepper. Toss in the oil and onions until nicely coated, and let simmer for 2-3 minutes.
3. Add the vegetable stock. Bring to the boil, then simmer.
4. Add the garlic, chilli flakes, yeast extract. Simmer for 20 minutes.
5. Pour the soup through a strainer into a bowl. Make sure you have extracted all of the liquid by moving the vegetables around with a wooden spatula and pressing them against the sides of the strainer. Don’t make the mistake (as I have) of touching the veg as they will be HOT!
6. Return consommé to the saucepan, and turn the heat back on to medium. Add the noodles. Cook until al dente. This will take differing amounts of time, depending on the type of noodle. Rice flour takes less time than heavier grains and mung bean noodles take almost no time at all.
7. Once the noodles are almost cooked, add the steamed dumplings.
8. Serve. Sprinkle with the toasted sesame seeds.