Week 51 -- Noodle-y Oodle-y Soup

After a morning spent making cookies for a work cookie exchange, I was feeling nostalgic and ready for a low effort lunch.  I've been thinking lately about how, as kids, we ate a lot of Oodles of Noodles.  This soup is a more grown-up version but still not much work.  I used bean thread noodles, which are gluten free, but you could use ramen noodles if you wanted.

I wanted little bits of parsley in the soup like in a packaged soup, but I was out, so I used kale that I dehydrated and ground to flakes last summer.

It looks different from childhood,
but it's a lot healthier with the same fun of noodles.

Noodle-y Oodle-y Soup

2 servings of dry noodles (bean thread or your choice)
water to cover
1/4 tsp each sage, celery seed, savory, and turmeric
dash of black pepper
1 Tbsp nutritional yeast
1/3 block extra-firm tofu, cubed
1/2 carrot, grated
1 Tbsp dried greens (parsley or kale)
miso to taste

1. Cook noodles according to package directions.  Drain off some water to leave desired amount for broth.
2.  Add seasonings, carrots, tofu, and greens. 
3.  Add miso to taste.

Makes two servings.

Week 36 -- Not Chicken Soup

I'm now moved out of my apartment and living with my parents until things are settled with me buying a house, so I'm cooking in mom's kitchen for a few weeks.  Mom and I, though we both eat WFPB, have some very different cooking styles (and the different cooking equipment that comes with that), so it's taking some adjustment.

But the perk of living at home for a while is mom-made comfort food when you aren't feeling well.  I was feeling sup-par and mom and I (but mostly mom while I moaned melodramatically from my bed) made the classic comfort food of Not Chicken Soup.

This soup uses one of mom's favorite WFPB ingredients:  soy curls.  We avoided them for years, thinking they were highly processed protein chunks like those "chicken style" tvp chunks we ate in our early vegan days, but they are actually just whole soybeans that are somehow magically transformed into "meaty" strips.  Don't question the magic.

My dad loves his Not Chicken Soup with noodles.  We dove into the Bag O' Pasta that I brought from my apartment and decided to try the green bean vermicelli.  They were very strange looking -- clear and goopy and not unlike a sea creature -- but they tasted surprisingly perfect in the soup.

Tastes like coming home!

A big bag of soy curls ready to be transformed.

Not Chicken Soup

1/2 tsp turmeric
1 tsp sage
1 tsp savory
1 tsp thyme
Black pepper
2 Tbsp parsley
1/2 onion 
3 garlic
3 celery with leaves
4 carrots
1 tsp molasses
2 Tbsp nutritional yeast
Miso 2 Tbsp
Soy curls 1 cup
Noodles (optional)

1.  Chop all vegetables.  Put in pan with seasonings (except miso) and about 3-4 cups of water.  Simmer as long as you can stand it. (Add about 2 more cups of water eventually.  Add it gradually as needed.)
2. Rehydrate soy curls according to directions on the bag.  Add miso and soy curls to the soup and simmer a few more minutes until soy curls pick up some of the flavor.
3. Serve over noodles if desired.

Makes about 3 servings for hungry people.