Soy Curls - those lovely little chunks of dried and stretched soybeans that, like tofu, are basically tasteless on their own but taste great when cooked with other things. But because soybeans are one of the fattiest beans I don't use them as often as I would like to.
As many people know, here on the East coast we've been having really cold temperatures, as low as single digits with wind chills in the negative teens at times. You know - SOUP WEATHER!! Since many of my favorite soups I now have penciled in for future dinners, I wanted to try something different for lunch, and this recipe cried out - "Choose me!!"
I wrote about this soup in the past, when Jill's Winter Soups video first appeared on YouTube, but for some reason never made it again, I guess because the only Soy Curls I had at the time were outdated and it took a long time to buy more. In fact, the ones I used when I made it this time were dated November 2017 but I figured what the heck, they've been refrigerated all this time and still smell okay, so why waste them, right?
This time around:
Soy Curls - What a difference they made! Better than the Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup I used to eat as a kid! I loved that stuff and would sometimes just open a can and eat it cold for a really quick lunch. Those days are long gone.
Veggies - Once again, I used one of the pint containers of mirepoix I had in the freezer and a can of no-salt added mushroom stems & pieces. Why mess with the classics? But this time I did have fresh baby spinach that I chopped up and tossed in.
Noodles - Instead of using the baked rice ramen, because I forgot I had some, I used half a package of Tinkyada rice fettucini noodles broken into small pieces. This makes it more of a traditional noodle soup than ramen, but either would fit this dish.
Vegetable Broth - The written directions in the PDF file say to use 8 cups of vegetable broth, so I used 2 boxes of Pacific no-salt added broth.
Picture - Yes, this time I remembered, but not until I ladled out a second bowl.
Now I have the recipe all printed out and sitting in a file folder right in the kitchen with my weekly menu recipes, so I should remember to make it more often. It really is a great tasting noodle soup.
