Miso Noodle Soup

First of all - Happy World Vegan Day!!!

When I visited Thailand a few years back, I was absolutely in love with the food, but I never jumped on the noodle soup bandwagon - it was always pad thai, a different variety of curry or veggies, tofu and rice and though that might sound pretty limited, every dish we had was always unique, yet still incredibly flavourful. I was vegetarian at the time, but we had some friends out there to translate for us and make sure there was A) no fish sauce and B) the food was much less spicy than they'd serve to the locals. Despite being there for 3 weeks, I still struggle to use chopsticks, though with a dish like this it's almost essential - you pick up the noodles and veggies with chopsticks and use a spoon for the broth. Oh - and thanks to my local Thai restaurant who gave me chopsticks for this post, at 11.30am, before they were even open, when I'd been to every shop in town and no where sold them!

It was immediately after this trip that I went vegan, towards the end of the trip I saw an instagram post of a male chick, not even minutes old being disposed of and it got the ball rolling, that maybe being vegetarian wasn't as cruelty free as I would have liked to believe. It may sound like a cliche and there's so many people who go travelling and come back 'changed' or having found spiritual enlightenment, but during that trip my eyes were really opened to the world of veganism and what it was all about.

Anyway, flash forward 3 or so years, I now absolutely love a good miso broth and noodle soup with a deeply savoury flavour to it. There's an itsu restaurant near me and their miso soup is so delicious, for the 1st month at my new job I even had miso soup everyday. I'm not quite as obsessed with it that I need to eat it everyday, but I really do enjoy a warm bowl of savoury broth, loaded with veggies, noodles and tofu. It's the perfect comfort food, albeit a bit messy to eat, but this dish is loaded with so much flavour and is really simple too! 

By using dried and fermented ingredients to make the broth, you skip a few hours of prep whilst you intensify the flavour of raw ingredients - dried mushrooms, miso, onion, garlic and ginger powder and dried chilies are ingredients easily available, that almost help you to 'cheat' and create a broth with incredible depth of flavour in almost no time at all! I also included some seaweed strips, I used nori because of availability, but wakame is super delicious too - seaweed is rich in iodine, which we can easily miss out on with a vegan diet - so make sure to eat up those sea veg! I also baked some tofu in a dry rub, juliened some carrots, grilled some pak choi and toasted some cashews. I served all this up with rice vermicelli noodles, ready for you to slurp up and enjoy!

Do you have a 'vegan story' you'd like to share this World Vegan Day? Was there a particular moment that opened your eyes or was it someone even? What ever your reason for going vegan, I'd love to hear about it, leave a comment below with your story...

Click here for printer friendly version

Miso Noodle Soup | Serves: 4 | Time: 30 mins

You'll need

• Large saucepan
• Griddle pan
• Small frying pan
• Chopping board
• Knife
• Measuring cups and spoons
• Baking tray + grease-proof paper
• Small bowl

Broth

• 1.5 tbsp miso paste
• 3 tbsp dark soy sauce
• 1/4 cup dried mushrooms
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1.5 tsp onion powder
• 1/4tsp chili flakes
• 1/4 tsp ginger powder
• 2L hot water
• 2 spring onions, sliced thinly
• 2 sheets nori, cut into thin strips
• 200g dried rice vermicelli noodles

Miso Pak Choi

• 1/2 tsp miso paste
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• splash water
• 2 Pak Choi

Tofu

• 1 block tofu
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp onion power
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 1/2 tsp mild chili powder
• Salt

Veg

• 1 cup bean sprouts
• 1/4 cup cashews
• 1 carrot

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 200°C and line a baking tray with grease-proof paper. Slice the tofu into 2cm cubes, season with garlic powder, onion powder, smoked paprika, chili powder and a pinch of salt. Mix well, so the pieces are evenly coated and bake for 20 minutes.
2. Next combine the miso, soy sauce, dried mushrooms, onion, garlic and ginger powder, chili flakes, nori, spring onions and hot water in a large saucepan, mix well and put to one side.
3. Slice a carrot into matchstick pieces, then toast the cashew nuts in a dry pan and put to one side.
4. Mix the miso paste, sesame oil, sugar and a splash of water in a bowl. Slice the pack choi into quarters, then coat in the miso mix and place on the griddle pan until slightly charred.
5. Add the noodles to the broth, bring to the boil and simmer for a few minutes until the noodles are tender.
6. Dish out the noodles into bowls and layer up with the veg, tofu and cashews, then ladle the broth into the bowls, serve up and enjoy! 

Cassidy xx