Wonderful Wednesday Recipes: Asian Chicken Noodle and Vegetable Soup

This dish is one of those aromatic, marvellous, ready-in-a-flash recipes that looks and tastes as though it took much more effort than it really did. Bursting with a delightful menagerie of enticing flavours and gentle textures, this soup has the ability to booth sooth and invigorate at the same time.

I love to make this recipe when I’m under the weather, heeding my grandpa’s advice that garlic cures all colds and flues. However, I adore it equally when I’m feeling well, especially as a fantastic weekend breakfast, which I like to imagine I’m consuming at bustling outdoor market in a distant Asian city.


{If cooking at home is more likely than a trip overseas for a bowl of noodle soup, why not slip on your favourite apron and look every bit as lovely as the cook in this adorable vintage illustration? Image via Jello Kitty’s Flickr stream.}


If you’re a fan of spicy foods, you can by all means add a sliced chili pepper or two to this beautifully fragrant soup, or up the garlic and ginger quotient.
Fantastic warm or at a room temperature, this soup transports well and can also be frozen for at least a couple of months and thawed before reheating on the stove top.


Asian Chicken Noodle and Vegetable Soup

Ingredients

•1 tsp vegetable oil

•1 clove of garlic, finely minced (or more to taste, if, like me, you’re a garlic lover)

•1 tbsp fresh ginger, peeled and finely minced

•8 cups chicken stock (homemade or good quality, preferable organic, store bought)

•2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, thinly sliced

•125 grams cappellini or angel hair pasta

•1 can (284 ml/10oz) water chestnuts, drained and sliced

•2 cups bean sprouts

•1 package (approximately 300 grams) of baby spinach leaves

•4 green onions, sliced

•Sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste


Directions

In a large saucepan or Dutch oven, heat the oil over medium heat; add in the garlic and ginger, stirring rapidly for a few seconds until the garlic turns golden (but not brown). Quickly add in all of the chicken stock, increase the burner (hob) temperature and bring the stock to a gentle boil.

Reduce heat slightly and add in the finely sliced chicken breast; cook for eight minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through. Add the sliced water chestnuts, bean sprouts, baby spinach and sliced green onions to the soup, stirring everything well to combine. Cook for a couple of minutes, then break the cappellini (or angel hair) pasta noodles into thirds and add them to the pot; cook for 2-4 minutes, until pasta is al dente.

Season soup with salt and pepper to taste, give it a final stir to really combine all the ingredients well, and bring to the table or ladle into serving bowls while still wonderfully warm.

Garnish with a few wisps of green onion, if desired, or sprinkle some sesame seeds into each bowl.


Makes at 4 to 8 servings, depending on if you want the soup to be a starter or main dish

Bon appétit!