Spicy Udon Soup in a Pinch!

Hey everyone!

I hope you are all having a great week so far! As you might have guessed by my few days absence I have been busy for the last couple of days. Well, let me define busy…

On Sunday, I came down with a raging flu (yes raging). One of those ones that is gone in a day and a half, but totally wreaks havoc on your body. I was awake for all of 4, maybe 5 hours on Monday. By Tuesday, I was fully recovered, but spent the entire day playing catch up on everything I had missed.

At least I was finally able to eat again!

You know, for me it doesn’t matter what time of year it is, when I am sick or recovering from illness, I love a good soup. However it being summer here in Calgary and all, I wasn’t thinking something too heavy and dense. Instead, my mind wandered to something more light and spicy, yet still warm and soothing.

I decided to do up a soup: a Spicy Udon Soup with Tofu to be specific. This recipe can be altered to be made vegan – if that isn’t your thing you can also switch out the tofu and add whatever meat you like. However, we enjoy tofu in my house and it is so quick to prepare that for me it was a no-brainer.

In a lot of my Asian inspired dishes you’ll notice one stape: Miso paste. It’s a must in my kitchen. It gives dishes a deeper flavour without all the effort. Miso paste is made from fermented soy beans and is high in complete protiens! Plus because it’s a fermented food, so it’s great for your gut.

Ingredients:

• Chicken Broth (900 mL)
• 1 TBSP Miso Paste
• 1 TBSP Red Curry Paste
• 1 TSP chili paste (or to taste)
• 1 TSP sesame oil
• 1 package of tofu
• 2 packages of Udon noodles (my packages were 200grams)
• 1 cup Snow Peas
• 1 cup grated carrot
• Green onion
• Sesame Seeds

Directions:

Add chicken broth, miso paste, red curry paste, and chili paste in a pot and bring to a boil. You can add extra chili paste if you really enjoy spicy! Once heated, add the tofu, udon noodles, sesame oil, and snow peas. The udon noodles take about three minutes to cook – it is pretty easy to guesstimate because the noodles do loosen up and become more flexible!

Once the soup is cozy in a bowl, add grated carrot, green onion, and sesame seeds on top.

Vegan friends, use a vegetable soup base instead of chicken to make this dish vegan friendly.

Carnivorous friends, you could substitute the tofu for chicken if that would make this more enjoyable for you.

One other thing I want to mention about making this dish is that it is so easy on the wallet. I already had all of the paste on hand, and it was a quick AND cheap shop to pick up everything else!

I hope you guys enjoyed this quick and easy soup recipe!