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.

Week 32 -- Split Pea Soup Powder

Another week of powdered soup!  I did post a split pea soup a few months ago.  This one is a little different with more of a cheesy flavor.

As with the powdered broccoli soup, to make this a powder, you spread the soup out in a thin layer on lined dehydrator trays, dehydrate, and then blend the flakes/chunks into powder.

I've learned from past experience that you do need to puree this soup before dehydrating.  The split peas, no matter how soft they are after cooking, are very hard after dehydrating so they are difficult to blend into powder.  The dehydrated flakes/chunks are yummy to snack on even without rehydrating, but if you don't blend the soup first, the split peas will be too crunchy to snack on.

If you have a silicone spillover lid, this is a time to use it.  If you don't have one, it's worth the investment.  I paid about $8 for mine online, and it is priceless.  The foam from the cooking peas bubbles up through, but it stays on the lid instead of going all over your stove top.

Split Pea Soup Powder

1/4 red onion, diced
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 lb dried split peas, rinsed
water to generously cover
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1 Tbsp miso
1 Tbsp lemon juice

1. Saute onion in a little water until soft.
2. Add garlic, split peas, and water.  Cover (with silicone spillover lid, if available) and bring to a boil.  Reduce to a simmer and cook until split peas are mushy (about 45 minutes).  Check occasionally to make sure the water doesn't all boil out.
3.  Turn off heat and let soup cool a little.  Add nutritional yeast, miso, and lemon juice.  Blend with immersion blender (or transfer to regular blender -- you may need to add more water this way).
4.  Spread on lined dehydrator trays.  Dehydrate until completely dry.  Blend into powder.

Makes about 6 servings.

Week 31 -- Cheezy Broccoli Soup Powder

This week begins a three-week series of soup powders.  When this blog post goes up, I will be somewhere in California or Nevada on a bus tour.  This tour company involves sleeping out and cooking communal meals.  They say that most of the meals are vegetarian, but with my allergies it's safer for me to prepare my food separately.  I don't expect there to be an abundance of cooking equipment, and I don't want to spend my whole trip cooking, so I am bringing some soup powders I can just supplement with fresh vegetables on the trail.

This is similar to my broccoli cheese soup, but it's simpler to make and has beans instead of nuts. 

After making the soup, you can eat it fresh or dehydrate it into powder.  Spread it on lined dehydrator trays (line with parchment paper or inexpensive reusable tray liners).  Dehydrate until completely dry.  It will be in flakes or chunks.  Blend the flakes/chunks into powder.  Then, when you want to eat some, just add some hot water and let sit a few minutes.

Cheezy Broccoli Soup 

1/2 red onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 carrots, sliced
about 3 cups broccoli florets
1 1/2 cups white beans (or 1 can)
water to cover
2 tsp miso
1/2 tsp mustard powder
2 tsp lemon juice
1/4 cup nutritional yeast

1. Saute onion in a little water until soft.  Add other vegetables with about an inch of water.  Let veggies steam until tender.  Add beans.
2. Turn off heat.  Add other ingredients.  Blend with immersion blender until smooth.
3. Soup should be slightly thick.  Spread on trays and dehydrate or thin to desired consistency and enjoy immediately.

Makes about 3-4 servings.