Monday, July 19, 2010

More Noodles for Comfort Foods

I spent a summer studying spanish in spain when I was an undergraduate. Even though we got awful cafeteria food for breakfast and lunch, all of my memories involve great food moments, from the avocado tomato bocadillos we bought downstairs in the snack shop to the enormous paellas cooked by the school's superintendent over outdoor grills to my first gazpacho. I haven't found a gazpacho recipe that's close to what I had, but in lieu, here's a DELICIOUS cold soup recipe. I've actually tried several different cold soups with cucumbers and avocados rather unsuccessfully. (one was waaaay rich and actually put me off avocados for a little while. that's just wrong) But this one is the one. Oh, and if for some reason you find yourself unable to eat solid foods, this is way better than a steady diet of protein shakes:
We call it Green Goddess Soup

1-2 cucumbers
1-2 ribs celery
1 ripe avocado
1/4 c. parsley
handful of fresh mint leaves (1/4 cup)
1 garlic clove
juice of 1/2 lemon

This has 2 major steps. The first requires a juicer, the second requires your blender
Juice the parsley, celery, and half of the cucumber (this means if you're using 1 cuke, juice half of it. If you're using 2 cukes, then juice one of them)

Blend garlic, rest of cucumber, avocado, mint and lemon juice together. Add juice to blender and blend until smooth.

Chill it. Garnish it with some finely diced onion.

And as you can see, I've been at it again with the pasta machine. Today, despite sunny weather pushing 100 degrees, I wanted to make some simple noodles for chik'n noodle soup. My absolute favorite. So I went on the prowl for some eggless noodle recipe.
It's surprisingly difficult to find "eggless noodle recipe" that actually yields a recipe. But I ended up simply (SO simple!) mixing

2 c. all purpose flour + 1/2 c. water

Knead it for 5 min. Let it rest 20 min. Then RUN THAT PUPPY THROUGH YOUR PASTA MACHINE!!! And afterward, well, isn't this exactly what tea towels and laundry racks are made for?
It was SO EASY. And produced the best, most velvety, freshest noodles in soup I've ever had. Zips went after the noodles when I cut them into little 2" pieces. Then proclaimed this the best chik'n noodle soup I've ever made, that she's ever eaten.
(just a box and a can of vegetable broth simmered with celery, a little onion, carrots, parsley, bay leaves, and some quorn meatless chik'n tenders. I think I'll add a little cilantro and of course squeeze of lemon and sprinkle of pepper). In Vietnam they eat soup for breakfast so you sweat and cool off. That's how I'm going to justify my soup dinner in late July in southern New Mexico! Enjoy!

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