Leanout Day 12: Miso Soup

I'm going to have to find a new way to label these blogs soon; I'm losing track of how many days I've been participating in this leanout challenge. It's snowy and cold, which has me in the mood for soup. I wanted to try something new, so I decided on miso soup from The Complete Idiot's Guide to Vegan Cooking (which is an awesome book that's gone severly underutilized in my kitchen).

Ingredients:

• 6 cups water
• 3 oz. udon noodles, broken in half
• 1 cup shitake mushroomrs, thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup green onions, thinly sliced
• 1 tbsp garlic, minced
• 1 tbsp fresh ginger, minced
• 3 tbsp miso of choice
• 2 tsp toasted sesame oil
• 2 tsp sesame seeds

In addition, I added cubes of extra firm tofu for protein and sprouts I *grew* myself in the sprout kit my big sister got me for Christmas. Like my magic bullet (yeah buddy), it was one of the gifts that had me scratching my head, but that I've ended up loving! I was so proud when these guys busted through the roof of their little enclosure:

Anywho, this is pretty quick to make, only about 25 minutes start to finish and most of that is waiting for the water to boil. There are two simple steps:

1. In a large pot, combine water, udon noodles, mushrooms, green onions, garlic and ginger. If you're following my recipe, add the sliced tofu as well. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce to low and simmer for 5-7 minutes or until noodles are tender.
2. In a small bowl, combine 1 cup broth from the pot and miso. Mix well and add back to the pot. Add toasted sesame oil and sesame seeds and simmer for 1 more minute.

I ladeled up my bowl of soup and topped with my sprouts. Now, ordinarily, I'd add a ton of sriracha! Unfortunately, it doesn't meet the 5 ingredient or less requirement, so I'm out of luck. That said, this soup did need a little seasoning. I think next time I'll add red pepper flakes as it boils to get a little heat. Or maybe even as a topper in my next bowl. This yielded about 4 servings, so I've got lots of great leftovers.

All in all a success! Not sure what I'm going to get up to next. I've got stuffed peppers, quinoa, brussel sprouts and asparagus on the list. The kitchen's going to be smelling very  good over the next couple of weeks.

Hope you're all keeping warm out there!

Cheers,

Karla