Food That Heals

A few days ago, I got back from vacation and I brought back a fabulous souvenir.  A raging, awful, snotty cold.  So then along came this soup... I needed something hot and spicy and warming to cut through the fog I was in.

This is a totally easy soup with little or no prep work in the flavor style of a Japanese hot pot.  There's also a ton of ginger and garlic to help open clogged nasal passages and boost immunity.  It can be served over vermicelli noodles or it can stand alone depending on how hungry you are.

So here is the recipe... I promise it's like a blanket in a bowl ;)

Spicy Hot Noodle Soup

Ingredients:

- 1.5 containers of stock of your choice ( veggie, chicken or beef)
-1 large yellow onion, chopped
-3 large cloves garlic
-About 3 TBSP grated fresh ginger
-Low sodium soy sauce to taste
-2 TBSP Mirin
-3 TBSP Rice wine vinegar
-2 8oz containers baby bella mushrooms; sliced.
-a few handfuls of either spinach or kale
-olive oil
-Sriracha to taste


In a large pot, heat the olive oil and add the onion and saute until tender.  At this point, add in the grated ginger and garlic.  Make sure you turn the heat to no higher than medium so as not to burn the garlic;which can emit a pretty foul flavor. By now, feel free to add the mushrooms and cook them until tender as well.  Once the mushrooms are cooked to your liking, add the stock and the vinegar, soy sauce, mirin,and sriracha.  For many of those, I did not indicate a quantity because this is the stage in the soup where you use your own tastes to dictate how spicy, salty and acidic you like your soup.  Bring the whole mix up to a simmer and add your greens of choice and cook until wilted.  The soup is ready to eat, or serve over some cooked vermicelli or ramen noodles to make a more substantial meal.

Til next time~