Mushroom Udon Noodle Soup

This delicious soup is quick and easy.  By using less broth, this could be a noodle bowl instead of a soup.  You can use any greens you have in the fridge.  Many times, I have used my leftover salad greens in this recipe.  Add any vegetables you desire or have sitting around your kitchen.  It just depends on how much effort you feel like putting into cooking.

I bought these already cooked udon noodles at Costco.  The package contains six individual packages ready for reheating.

These vegetarian bouillon bases are available at my local Vons store.  They are much cheaper than buying the canned or box vegetable broths.  Just adding a teaspoon or less to water creates a lot of great flavor.

 

Mushrooms and Greens Udon Noodle Soup

3 cups water
1/2 t. vegetable bouillon
2 cups crimini mushrooms (or button style)
6 oz. package all ready cooked udon noodles
2 cups spinach or other greens
1 T. soy sauce
1/4 t. Sriracha hot sauce
ground pepper to taste

In medium saucepan, heat water and bouillon.  Thinly slice mushrooms and add to pan.  Let simmer for 10 minutes.  Add spinach and noodles.  The "clump" of noodles will separate on it's own. Cook another 5 minutes.  Noodles should have separated.  Add soy sauce, Sriracha and pepper.  Stir soup and serve.

Makes two servings.

Red Lentil Soup with Turnip and Parsley

Since it was so cold and rainy yesterday, I made soup.  This soup recipe comes from Terry Walters' book, "Clean Start."  All the recipes appear to be vegan and gluten free.  I have never cooked or tasted a turnip before.  I liked it.  The soup was delicious and pretty easy.  I didn't have the mirin so I used cooking sherry.  I also substituted canned beans for the cooked beans and canned tomatoes for fresh tomatoes.

Red Lentil Soup with Turnip and Parlsey

1 ½ cups dried red lentils

3 cups water

Thumb-size piece kombu

1 medium yellow onion, diced

4 garlic cloves, minced

3 celery stalks, diced

2 T. extra virgin olive oil

2 T. mirin

1 ½ cups chopped tomatoes

1 turnip, peeled and diced

1 ½ cups cooked great northern beans

4 cups vegetable stock

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

½ cup fresh flat-leaf parsley

Rinse and drain lentils.  Place in pot with water and kombu and bring to boil.  Skim and discard foam.  Reduce heat to simmer, partially cover and cook until lentils are soft (about 20 minutes).  Remove from heat and set aside.

In soup pot over medium heat, sauté onion, garlic and celery in oil until soft (4-6 minutes).  Add mirin, tomatoes, turnip and beans,  Stir to combine ingredients.  Remove and discard kombu from lentils and add lentils to soup pot.  Add stock, bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer covered for 20 minutes.  Season to taste with salt and pepper and remove from heat.  Stir in 1/3 cup chopped parsley and serve topped with remaining parsley as garnish.

Serves 8

Tomato and White Bean Soup

For those of you in the cold and snowy parts of the country, heat yourselves up with this delicous soup recipe from Giada De Laurentis.  I veganized it and added zucchini.  It's very easy and homemade... kind of.  I use a jar "Basil Garlic" marinara sauce from Vons/Safeway.  It contains whole garlic cloves.

Serve this soup with slices of crusty garlic bread.  Just slice some French bread and spread with Earth Balance Buttery Spread.  Sprinkle minced garlic on top and bake in the toaster oven until golden brown.  Fabulous!

Tomato and White Bean Soup

3 T. olive oil

2 carrots, peeled and chopped

1 small onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

1 medium zucchini, cut in half and then sliced

1 – 26 oz. jar marinara sauce

32 oz. vegetable broth

1 – 15 oz. can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed

½ t. red pepper flakes

¾  cup small pasta (recommend small shells)

½ t. salt

½ t. pepper

In large stock pot, sauté carrots, onions and garlic in olive oil until soft.  Add zucchini and cook 2 more minutes.  Add the rest of the ingredients and bring to just boiling.  Turn down heat to low and simmer for 30 minutes.

Vegetable Black Bean Soup

On my recent trip to visit family, my sister made an incredible black bean soup.  It had a lot more vegetables than most black bean soups and so much flavor.  I’ve never seen pickled jalapenos used in a soup!  Today I craved this soup but I didn’t have any green peppers.  I made it anyway.  I did have some celery and yellow and orange peppers that were about to go bad.  So, I put those in the pot.  I messed up and drained the black beans before I reread the recipe.  It came out great anyway!  I think the most important part of this recipe are the jalapenos, chipotle and spices.  They give the soup such incredible flavor. 

Vegetable Black Bean Soup

2 T. olive oil

2 medium red onions

2 carrots

1 medium green pepper

1 medium red pepper

2 – 15 oz cans diced tomatoes in juice

4 garlic cloves, minced

2 t. pickled jalapeno, chopped

2 t. cumin

2 – 15 oz cans black beans with juice

1 ½ cups vegetable broth

1 T chopped chipotle

1 T. red wine vinegar

2 T. chili powder

Salt to taste

Chop and saute the fresh veggies in olive oil until tender.  Add everything else and bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes.

Garnish with cilantro and Tofutti Sour Supreme.  6 servings.