Delicious Soup?

OK, this soup is pretty much my favorite lunch in the world. I've made it a million times, so I should have it down by now. I got the original recipe from Cynthia Lair's book "Feeding the Whole Family" but I've changed it some, mainly because I usally make it just for myself, and I hate leftovers. For those of you from Portland, whenever I make this Joe says that it smells like Hot Wok (from New Seasons) in our apartment. I made it yesterday, it was delicious as always.

The first thing I do is buy vegetables that I like. Yesterday I used baby bok choy, a carrot, broccoli, onion and garlic. Since I usually just make it for me I just buy 1 tiny baby bok choy, 1 whole carrot, an individual broccoli head, etc. I usually use mushrooms too, but yesterday I forgot and was bummed, because they are the best part. The recipe calls for tofu but I don't want to buy a whole thing of tofu and just use a little bit of it and then find a tofu monster in my fridge three months from now so I skip it. But the nice thing about this recipe is that you can use just about anything you have or want. I want to try fish, but for now am too scared and not sure if I want to possibly ruin something delicious with vile fish.

You can also add a grain, I use soba noodles which the recipe called for, but I'm sure you could use rice (especially rice you already made, since it takes forever- soba noodles only take 3 minutes) or nothing, which I sometimes do too.

So, to start off, I make my grain if I want one. I find a pot (any pot will do as long as you can cover the vegetables later). Even though I have four pots, they are all the same size, so for me it really doesn't matter what I use, except once when I used my frying pan and it turned out to use way too much liquid. Add some toasted sesame oil. I just put in a little at first, and then add more as I go if it gets to dry, so maybe about 1 Tbsp total, maybe more. While the toasted sesame gets hot (over medium high heat) I cut up my veggies. I cut them in the order they go in, so the veggies that take the longest to cook get cut up first (onions, carrots, garlic). I just cut them up into small little pieces, and I cut the carrots into discs and then in half. The recipe says to cut the carrots into matchbook size piece but that takes forever and the one time I did it they all sunk to the bottom of my soup and I never got to eat any of them. And I cut my hand. I add them when the are cut up and the oil seems hot (but not too hot or it splatters) and then keep adding things as I go (mushrooms next, then others like baby bok choy spine- the leaves go in later).

From adding the onions to the bok choy spines takes about 5 minutes, giving everything as much time as it needs. Usually I just wait until the onions and garlic start to soften, then add the carrots, wait until they start to soften, add the mushrooms, wait until they absorb some liquid, and add the boy choy. I don't think that the timing is very crucial, I always do it different and sometimes forget something until the very end. Like I did with my broccoli, although I probably wouldn't add this until the end anyways, since it would probably get most of its cooking from the next step, adding the liquids.

Now I add the liquids: soy sauce and water. The recipe calls for a lot of both, I use less. I usually put in maybe 3 Tbsp of soy sauce and just enough water to cover my vegetables, maybe a little less. That's because I don't want it to be too soupy. I want it to be halfway between soup and stirfry. But you can add or more or less as you please. Then I bring down the heat to low, cover and simmer for about 10 minutes. Finally, I add the bok choy leaves and cook until they wilt, which only takes another minute or so. (Don't forget this step- the leaves are so good!)

Pour the soup over the grains and ta da! Delicious, super easy soup that has lots of vegetables! I know from all the steps above it seems like it might take forever but once you get it down I bet it only takes about 15 minutes. Also, since you can use veggies you already have (and probably frozen veggies too) and also because fresh veggies are inexpensive this is the cheapest healthy lunch ever. Once you get the soy sauce and the oil you can buy the veggies for enough soup for one person for less than $3, sometimes closer to $1.50 depending on what you already have.

So, here's the condensed recipe for 1 person (it can easily be doubled or tripled or whatever):

1 baby bok choy, spine seperated from leaves
1 carrot (or three baby carrots), chopped
1 head broccoli, cut into pieces
1/4 onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, chopped or minced
2-3 shitake mushrooms, sliced
Soba Noodles, 1/6 of a package
2 Tbsp Toasted Sesame Oil
3 Tbsp Soy Sauce

Boil water for soba noodles. Cook as package directs.

Heat 1 Tbsp Toasted Sesame Oil over medium high heat, adding more if necessary as you go. When hot, add onion and garlic, let cook for 1-2 minutes, stirring occasionally. Continue to stir occasionally as you add other vegestables. Add carrots, let cook for 1 minute. Add mushrooms, let cook for 1-2 minutes, until soft. Add bok choy spine and broccoli, then add Soy Sauce and enough water to cover vegetables. Reduce heat to simmer, cover pot and cook for ten minutes. Add bok choy leaves and simmer until they wilt, 1-2 minutes.

Combine noodles and soup and serve!