Rainbow Bright Soup & Salad
This blog is dedicated to my wonderful boyfriend, Andy Hoffer who inspires and encourages me in the kitchen and in life in general. I'm not 100% sure whether or not he likes everything I make, but if he doesn't, he's damned good at faking it! :)
The best phrase I can think of when describing the kinds of food I want to indulge in is, "excite the senses"!
Although taste may be the star of the show, there's only so much acapella solo performances one can sit through. I want a thumping bass, screaming guitars and double kick drums! I may be getting older but I'm not dead yet! (Just really tired).
Excite your senses people! Appetizing colors, smells and textures will take your meal to the next level. I mean, let's face it, exactly how appetizing does a steamed chicken breast with mashed potatoes and white bread sound to you?? Uh yea, not so much! Then again, I remember as a child smelling liver and onions cooking in the kitchen and I would literally burst into tears. My mother made us eat that nasty smelling, crumbly tasting bloody organ once a month. I would literally gag trying to swallow it whole to avoid tasting it. That nonsense equates to child abuse as far as I'm concerned! So maybe that chicken doesn't sound so bad afterall.
Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, color, texture and scent. Make it happen!
I'm very big on the crunch factor. When we were doing the vegan thing, my boyfriend would do a lot of the cooking and it was usually quite tastey, but he often forgot about the crunch factor. Whatever you're making, throw some lettuce, or cabbage or nuts or something in there to get some crunch going!
If you want, you can pretty much use the same ingredients for the salad as you use in the soup for the following dishes. You'll have the steamy hot soup version and the crunch factor salad version!
This is my version of an Asian inspired Rainbow soup and salad. I wanted to do a homemade carrot ginger dressing because that would have been to-die-for-delicious and added even more color, but I lost steam and was running outta time with all of the veggie chopping.
You can basically throw any veggies you want in this, just make 'em colorful!
Ingredients:
All measurements are adjustable to the amount you want to make and to taste!
1 package dry Asian rice noodles (I use the real thin ones) prepared via package directions
About 48 oz. of vegetable or chicken broth
1 medium onion - diced
4-6 cloves of fresh garlic - minced
A few tablespoons of olive oil
1/4 quarter purple cabbage - chopped
1 large carrot - sliced
1-2 stalks celery - sliced
Bell peppers of your choice - cut into strips (I bought the bag of little sweet peppers so I could get multiple colors)
About half a bag of frozen snap peas - thawed
Soy sauce (I like the lower sodium) to taste
Salt and pepper to taste
If you really wanna go the Asian route, you can include some Chinese or Japanese herbs and spices, but I didn't because I'm broke and already spend way too much money on food! So throw in whatever herbs you like, fresh or dreid. Basil, bay leaves, oregano, cilantro, parsley...whatever tickles your fancy.
Method:
Heat olive oil in a large pot or wok over medium high heat
Add onions and garlic and and stir fry until the onions soften a bit
Add bell peppers, carrots and celery continuing to stir until they begin to soften
Add the snap peas and cabbage last so maybe you can retain just a little bit of the crunch factor
Add broth, soy sauce, salt and pepper and herbs to taste. (Taste as you go people. Definitely one of the most important pieces of advice I can give on cooking.)
Lower heat and let simmer long enough to allow the broth to heat through.
This is where I'm gonna veer a bit from the method I used. Instead of adding your noodles to the pot, serve the noodles in individual serving bowls and ladel the soup over the noodles. Rice noodles are thin and delicate and you don't wanna turn them to complete mush by having them sit in the hot broth too long.
Throw together a salad with greens, cherry tomatoes, some of the purple cabbage, celery, carrots...whatever you like. I hightly suggest a carrot ginger dressing for the salad, but I couldn't find any at my local grocery store, so I went with ginger sesame vinaigrette.
My boyfriend feels the need to have some kind of bread product with every dinner, so I slapped some butter and minced garlic on some flat bread and sprinkled them with dry parsley, threw them directly on the 350 degree oven rack for about...ummm, I have no idea how long. Just keep an eye on them and take 'em out when they're golden brown.
Last but definitely not least, don't forget the sake!
ここでの生活には - Translation - Here's to life!
