Asian Style Noodle Soup with Greens

 

The inspiration for Asian Style Noodle Soup with Greens comes from Mollie Katzen’s Vegetable Heaven. While today’s recipe is quite different from Katzen’s, but I believe in credit where it’s due.

If you are unfamiliar with Katzen’s books, I encourage you to seek them out.  A friend lent me The Enchanted Broccoli Forest in the mid 1990’s, before both the internet and the foodie revolution. Ingredients like lemongrass, tamari sauce, and tofu were unfamiliar to many of us. So was the idea that vegetarian food could be interesting, approachable, and delicious. Katzen’s books went a long way toward changing those perceptions.

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Into the kitchen.

This is a rare instance where I recommend using either chicken or vegetable stock to make Asian Style Noodle Soup with Greens. This stock may be homemade, from a jar, or be an artisanal bone broth prepared in reclaimed copper stills. Whatever the case, avoid water, which may result in a bland soup.

Not broth. I had no broth picture. So this is a mini-harvest festival. Like I ever get near a farm.

Western soups have their soffrittos and mirepoix. Chinese dishes often begin with stir-frying minced garlic, ginger, and scallion. All three went into to the soup pot, along with star anise.

Dried mushrooms are another excellent way of adding flavor. Decant dried mushrooms into glass preserving jars, if possible. They’ll keep indefinitely in a cool, dry place. A few go far.

Fresh shittake mushrooms proved less fresh than promised. I was able to use a few. The rest went into the compost. None were especially photogenic.

More harvest festivity.

The world’s grittiest bok choy. So gritty you can see it in the picture.

Like many Americans, I have been the tiniest bit distracted lately. I mean, whole, bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs for soup?  Um, more flavorful, sure, but boneless would be just fine here.

The chicken wasn’t very pretty.

After 45 minutes, I removed the chicken from the soup, let it cool, then meat from the bones. I cut it into small pieces and returned it to the pot. You can avoid this kefluffle: buy boneless.

Also not chicken.

The Seasoning….

As mentioned above, Asian Style Noodle Soup with Greens needs careful seasoning or you’ve got a pot of blandness.

This isn’t a cue to empty the spice cabinet into the soup. Instead, use a measuring spoon for liquid seasonings, ensuring your carefully assembled soup doesn’t get ruined by spilled vinegar or the error known as “the soy sauce lake mistake.”

Never heard of the soy sauce lake mistake? I just made it up. The term, that is. I would venture you’re familiar with the mistake.

The noodles should be added to the soup just before serving time. Dried or fresh noodles are fine. A wider noodle is preferable, but use whatever is available.

A final note:

The first time I served Asian Style Noodle Soup with Greens, we thought it nice enough but lacking.

The next day, I ladled out a half-cup of soup and tried to figure out what was missing. More brown rice vinegar made the soup more acidic.

Tomato paste didn’t hurt, but it didn’t help. Fresh lime juice made the soup unpleasantly acidic.

Sugar was the winner. Just a small sprinkling made a remarkable difference, smoothing the soup’s rough edges and rounding out the flavors. In almost thirty years of cooking, this is the first time I’ve added sugar to soup. Live and learn.

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Asian Style Soup with Greens is endlessly mutable–there is nothing in the recipe that cannot be altered, making this an incredibly useful soup as we enter the cooler months.

Asian Style Noodle Soup with Greens may be served as is, or with a scatter of cilantro, as pictured above. Bottles of soy sauce, various chili pastes, sesame oil, and vinegar may also be served at the table so diners can customize their soups.