Veggie Noodle Soup

I love noodles and I love soup. Together they make the ultimate combination…kind of like chocolate and peanut butter. I love making quick and healthy noodle soups that are also really filling. I also love the Asian supermarket near my house. The produce section is amazing. You can actually smell the fresh fruits and veggies as you walk by them as opposed to Stop and Shop which just smells like the mini Starbucks they have in the corner of their produce section

Vegetable Noodle Soup

So like I said, this soup is really quick and easy to make. Just find whatever veggies you want and whatever noodles you prefer and throw them in with some broth. My measurements aren’t very accurate because I just eye-balled it, but here is how I made mine:

Asian Vegetable Noodle Soup (Recipe from my imagination)

Ingredients:
2 gloves of garlic chopped
1 cup of shitake mushrooms chopped
a handful of enoki mushrooms, reserve some for garnish
4 spring onions chopped, reserve some for garnish
a couple fistfuls of bean sprouts
a half package of pan-fried Hong Kong style egg noodles (rice noodles work well too)
4 cups of vegetable broth

Directions:

Put a tablespoon of canola oil into a sauce pan on medium high heat. Saute garlic and shitake mushrooms for a couple minutes until translucent. Pour in vegetable broth and add beansprouts. Bring to a boil, then add noodles, enoki mushrooms and some of the spring onions. Simmer on medium heat for 5 minutes or until noodles have softened. Pour into bowls and garnish with spring onions and enoki mushrooms.

This should serve about 3-4 depending on big your bowls are.

Apologies for no music with this blog post but I have not heard anything worth mentioning recently. Will post something soon!

Gyudon

I came across this recipe on the Nest and realized its a very similar recipe to these beef bowls I used to get for lunch at the Yoshinoya near Times Square when I was going to school in New York. Yoshinoya is a very popular fast food chain in Japan and Gyudon is their specialty.

Gyudon consists of very thinly sliced beef and onions simmered in a sweet wine sauce. To ensure thin slices of beef, freeze your cut of meat for about an hour before slicing.

Gyudon (Sweet Simmered Beef and Onions over Rice)
Source: The Nest

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 large yellow onion, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon sake (I used mirin since I didn’t have any sake)
1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons white wine
1 1/4 cups water
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon ginger juice
2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon very finely minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 pound beef rib eye, very thinly sliced (almost shaved; for ease, freeze for 1 hour before slicing)
2 cups hot cooked rice
2 large eggs (optional)

Directions:

In a medium saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. When the butter is foaming, add the onion and cook, stirring often, until translucent, 4 to 5 minutes. Add the sake and wine and cook fro about 2 minutes to cook off most of the alcohol. Add the water, soy sauce, ginger juice, sugar, garlic and salt and mix well. Finally, add the beef and cook, stirring constantly to prevent the pieces from sticking together, until it is just cooked through. This beef should cook very quickly, in no more than 2 to 3 minutes.

Divide the rice between 2 bowls and spoon the beef-and-onion mixture over the top, also dividing evenly. Serve at once. If you like, provide each diner with an egg to mix into the hot beef and rice.

Note: There is a low rate of risk for exposure to salmonella bacteria in raw eggs. The elderly, the very young, pregnant women, and anyone who is ill or has a compromised immune system should not consume raw eggs.