Tofu noodle soup
Spicy, brothy, salty, with noodles and mushrooms and anything your heart desires.
Tofu Noodle Soup
Time: 1.5+ hrs | Difficulty: 1/5 | Recommendation: Weekday meal or dinner
This soup is so delicious. It’s spicy, briny, has a ton of different textures, and is really great for when you’re feeling under the weather, or when outside is a blizzard and you just want some coziness in your tum. The “mushroom water” takes the place of water or vegetable stock here, and makes a sort of ramen-esque broth. You can add other things to this too, like maybe some fresh mushrooms, water chestnuts, or onion slices, or…I don’t know, you’ll think of something! Tip: leave those hunks of ginger pretty big! They actually soften and take on a lot of nice flavor as you simmer them. This makes 2-3 servings.
Ingredients/Tools:
2 cloves garlic
About an inch of ginger
Two slabs of firm tofu
1 bag of dried shiitake mushrooms
1 packet of curly noodles
Soy sauce
Rice vinegar
Sugar
Chili flakes
A big pot and another smaller pot
Method:
Get some super hot water into a pot and pour in the mushrooms. Cover and let them re-hydrate (this will take a little while, so start this long before you make the soup.)
Chop the ginger and garlic. Press the tofu and chop into cubes.
In a big pot, add olive oil, the ginger, garlic, and a lot of chili flakes. Add in the tofu and stir it all around until the ingredients are browning. Add in the mushrooms when they’re squishy and hydrated (don’t throw away that water), and sauté it all.
Remove the tofu from the pot and set aside. Add soy sauce and rice vinegar to the pot and stir. Then pour in the steamy mushroom water, cover, and simmer.
Once all the flavors are blended (taste it to be sure), add the uncooked noodles straight into the pot for them to cook in the soup. Cover again and simmer more.
Taste the soup—it’s ready when you think it’s ready! Add the tofu on top when you’re ready to serve.
