I’ve been doing some serious larder cleaning the past few days. I’ve also been getting into soup season. We’re leaving for Chicago tonight to get ahead of the snow/sleet/freezing mixture moving in overnight. Like my mother, I like to leave an empty fridge behind!
I also attacked my crazy cookbook shelf in the kitchen. I now have my clothes down to the level that I can leave them out all seasons (well, I put some sweaters away…) but my cookbooks need seasonal shuffling. I made a stack to get rid of, another for “reading” that I don’t really cook from and can go upstairs for bedside reading, and then put the summer cookbooks (garden-based and/or preserving) in a high cabinet and the ones I’m most likely to use back on the shelf. Very satisfying.
Last night I went into the “Asian supplies drawer,” which is pretty full because I did not follow through with my Japanese cooking adventure plans last winter.
I made a miso soup without any real recipe. The principles are to build flavor and to not let the miso boil. The inspiration is the current “noodle bowl” craze. So any recipe would just be a suggestion.
When we sat down, I said: “This is a really cancer-prevention-friendly meal.” Sweet potato, carrot, ginger and kombu are all ingredients that show up in The Cancer-Fighting Kitchen cookbook. Buckwheat noodles instead of egg noodles and a handful of frozen kale would have upped it even farther and made it gluten free.
Sweet potato is a new ingredient for me– I still associate it with yucky sweet recipes and usually only make them at holiday time mashed with curry powder and butter. They are showing up more and more in soup recipes. I’ll include an easy carrot soup recipe below.
This soup was warm and flavorful and took about 20 minutes. I think it will make its way into our regular rotation this winter.
Miso Soup
1 8″ strip of kombu (a sturdy seaweed found in good Asian markets)
4-6 cups water
1 Tbs minced ginger
soy sauce to taste
2 Tbs miso paste (any kind, I had yellow)
dried mushrooms soaked in boiling water and cut in small pieces
2 carrots, sliced or diced
1 yam or sweet potato, sliced/quartered
2 nests of thin egg noodles, udon/buckwheat noodles, sobu, rice vermicelli, any thin noodle really
scallions, white and light green parts sliced
protein: chicken, tofu, shrimp
I began by setting the dried mushrooms in a small bowl with a cup or so of water from the kettle. I put the water and kombu in a medium-sized pot on the stove to boil. Then I chopped the carrots and sweet potato and peeled the shrimp. I didn’t have scallions.
When the kombu had boiled about 7 minutes, I took it out and put it in the compost. I dumped in the mushrooms and their broth, the sweet potato and carrots and cooked for 3 minutes. Then I turned down the heat and added the shrimp and noodles, soy sauce, ginger and miso. (You can dissolve the miso in water first, but I think it’s fine to just dissolve it in the hot broth from the tablespoon.) I also added a handful of garbanzo beans I had in the fridge. After a couple minutes would be a good time to add greens and scallions and taste for more soy sauce. When the shrimp pink up and the noodles are done, the soup is ready! (Note: Other noodles might take more time.)
Happy Slurping!
They don’t get easier than this soup, especially if you used bagged carrots. It is tasty, rich, gluten free and very cancer-fighting!
Easy Thai Carrot Soup
1 package of peeled baby carrots (2lbs) (or, 2 lbs regular carrots chopped)
1 peeled sweet potato cut in large pieces
1 coarsely chopped onion
3—4 cloves fresh garlic
1qt vegetable broth
salt/pepper to taste
4-5 Tbls. grated fresh ginger- or in chunks
1 can coconut milk
sweet chili sauce (optional)
Place carrots, potato, garlic and onion in a pan with the broth and simmer until soft. Add the ginger and taste for salt. Puree in a food processor, then stir in the coconut milk . Choose how thick you like your soup by holding back some of the broth or adding more for a thinner consistency.
If you like a bit more spice, stir a few spoons of Thai sweet chili sauce into the soup. [Every bottled sauce is different, so check for spiciness].
[The recipe makes enough for 6-8 people]