Udon Soup

This week has been all about craving Asian food. I attempted to look up a easy Pho recipe online and realized they don't exist. So instead I picked up my new pasta cookbook that my friend Jenna got me for my birthday (as a substitute for the older version that I've been pining for since forever) and went to the Asian noodle section. It had a great simple udon noodle soup recipe so I thought I'd give it a go. I didn't have all the ingredients so I made a few substitutes and it turned out great, so I think I'll keep them.


Udon Soup

250 g fresh or 375 g dried udon noodles
500 g pork tenderloin, or pork chop thinly sliced
2 L low sodium beef broth
2 carrots, peeled and julienned
400 g sliced mushrooms (if you want to get fancy you can slice up some shiitake and enoki mushrooms)
1 heaping Tbsp of grated fresh ginger (never can have to much ginger!)
2 fresh red chiles, slightly crushed to release some of it's oils
1/4 cup fish sauce
1 Tbsp soy sauce
2 handfuls of baby spinach leaves
5 stocks of green onion, sliced
toasted sesame seeds

Boil udon noodles as per instuctions on package. Rinse with cold water when cooked and set aside.

In a large pot over high heat combine broth, carrots, mushrooms, ginger, chiles, fish sauce, and bring to boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 2 minutes.

Add the pork, raise the heat and cook for 2 minutes. Stir in noodles, spinach, green onions. Simmer until the spinach wilts and the noodles are heated through.

Remove the soup from the heat and discard the chiles. Taste and adjust the flavors to your liking. Laddle to soup into individual bowls and top generously with the toasted sesame seeds.

Slurp away! This soup has a lot of depth to the broth despite the short cooking time and few ingredients, and the sesame seeds add a great flavour so don't skip out on those!