Soupy Noodles

When I’m at work, I do not crave for food. However, coffee is my major craving during work hours. But on days when I am home early, my tummy starts its hunger pang cries and I am desperately looking for something to shush it up. During those times of struggle, quick is the word.

Considering that most of the times I am cooking for hours, anything that I can cook within half an hour is quick for me.

One of my quick soul happy dishes is noodle soup. I have to say, it’s quite a favourite of my family.

So here is what you need

Ingredients

•  A big bowl of seasonal vegetables finally chopped. (I generally go for cabbage, carrot, beans, spring onions because these you can find in your kitchen or market during any season)
• Small bowl of sliced mushrooms (if you don’t have any you can skip it)
• One small onion/shallot finally chopped
• Two cloves of garlic chopped
• Half a teaspoon of ginger finally chopped
• A handful of egg noodles (you can take any flat noodles if you don’t have egg noodles)
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Pinch of turmeric
• A handful of fresh coriander leaves finally chopped.
• Fresh lemon juice (half a lemon is good enough)
• Water
• Butter

Method

1. In a thick based pan, put a small cube of butter. Put the gas to low flame
2. Add chopped onions, garlic and ginger and let it cook till onions turn brown.
3. Add spring onions and let it cook for a minute or two
4. Add rest of the veggies. If you wish, you can boil the carrots before you put them in the soup
5. Cover the lid of the pan and let the veggies cook in their own steam for around 5 min
6. Add water to the veggies. I generally don’t measure the water as i add it as per the requirement. But it is close to around 500 ml of water. Make sure your veggies are submerged and a lot is still left for noodles to soak in and the final dish to still look like a soup.
7. Cover the lid and let the veggies cook in the water for around 10-15 min. This is also a good process to make vegetable stock.
8. Once the veggies are soft and cooked, add salt, pepper as per your taste and a pinch of turmeric.
9. Add noodles and let the noodles cook in the stock
10. Once noodles are cooked, add coriander, lemon juice and switch the gas off.
11. Serve in bowls and enjoy the soup

 

The best thing about this soup is that there is plenty of room for improvement and scope for innovation. You may add chicken or fish as per your liking. Add green chilli paste to give it a Thai twist, or just add a bit of cream or milk to give it more texture.

Let me know if you made any changes or if you tried it.

Quick at Sandwich

Breakfast is my favourite part of a meal. For me breakfast is like that perfect beginning to a perfect day. The way a good breakfast can make my day, only a great vacation comes anywhere close to that feeling.

However, thanks to the hurried busy work life of a weekday, all that I can offer myself during those rushed hours is toast and butter. Not that I hate it, I think a well toasted bread when topped with butter makes a perfect comfort food on go.

Come weekends and my heart crave for something more but that is when my lazy brain whispers “Why bother. Take it easy, its weekend”. And either my heart or my head wins.

This weekend I decided to listen to my brain and heart at the same time and come up with a yummy breakfast which can be made quickly, easily and would make me feel the weekend happiness. End result?

A simple tomato mushroom open sandwich:

Ingredients:

• One medium fresh red tomato
• Two-three big button mushrooms (if you have medium or small button mushrooms, maybe you would need to keep few more handy, in case you run short of them)
• Butter
• Cheese
• Salt to taste
• Black pepper to taste
• Dried basil or parsley (you can always go for fresh if you are lucky)
• Bread slices (type of bread you ask?? One which will make you more happy I say J )

Method

• Slice tomato in round slices and slice mushroom in long slices
• Spread butter, a little generously darlings, on the bread slices
• Sprinkle a pinch of salt, pepper and dried basil/parsley
• Put tomato and mushroom slices on the bread randomly
• Put a cheese slice on top and sprinkle basil/parsley
• Put the sandwiches in the oven for toast
• Toast the sandwich till the cheese starts to melt, but don’t over toast it as bread will turn hard
• Take it out and enjoy it with your favourite dip or sauce or just a humble cup of cold coffee

 

Note: To add more kick to your sandwich you may replace tomatoes with sundried tomatoes and add olives or jalapenos. Since I love my breakfast sandwich with less complication and simple flavours I preferred to keep it basic.