Mushroom, Nori & Wakame Noodle Soup
I’ve got so many ideas for cooking with sea vegetables but I never seem to get around to making them. Now that they are readily available, it’s time to start incorporating more into our diet. Nori is most familiar as a wrapping for sushi (California rolls) and I love the flavour, especially toasted. Wakame I’ve actually never tried before – it is a thicker seaweed so I chopped it and added pieces to keep the delicate flavour and texture. I often start craving lighter food at this time of year, I think because I’m eagerly anticipating warmer weather and feeling like I need a bit of a cleanse. This is definitely the case after I munched my way through this bread over the past couple of days.
I used a mixture of yellow oyster, hon shimeji and shiro shimeji mushrooms in the soup. I’m a fan of the shimeji mushrooms and they are fairly easy to get hold of. There is a recipe here for using them with ostrich steak (not kidding!) but I think they really are better suited to these sorts of flavours. If you are not a veggie, this soup is absolutely begging to be tried with prawns or, even better, dumplings with pork, prawns and spring onions inside. Yum! Overall, I was really happy with the end result, it felt cleansing and invigorating just like I imagined it.
This is an entry for this month’s ‘No Croutons Required‘ hosted by Lisa from Lisa’s Kitchen and Holler from Tinned Tomatoes. I felt honoured that my entry was chosen as the winning soup last month. See my Smoky, Sweet and Spicy Red Pepper Soup with Feta and Mint. I was originally set to make a salad for this months entry using the mushrooms and seaweed. I wanted to try coating halloumi cheese in crumbled nori but in my haste I accidentally picked up – SHOCK HORROR – low fat halloumi! It’s disgusting, just as I knew it would be. Cheese is supposed to be fatty! Anyway, I’m glad I didn’t because this soup worked really well. If you haven’t experimented further than miso soup, give it a try!
Mushroom, Nori and Wakame Soup
1 medium onion, diced finely
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 thumb of ginger, finely chopped
4 sheets of toasted nori, shredded (the size you would use for sushi)
120g mixed mushrooms (I used yellow oyster, hon shimeji and shiro shimeji)
100g buckwheat soba noodles (or alternative noodles like rice vermicelli)
1.5 litres veg stock
Soy sauce for seasoning
Spring onions, finely shredded
1 red chilli finely chopped and 1 finely sliced for garnish
Rice wine vinegar for seasoning
15g Wakame, chopped roughly
- Gently saute the onion, garlic, chilli and ginger in a little oil until soft.
- Add the seaweeds and mushrooms and stir, then add the stock.
- Bring it to the boil, add the noodles and then simmer uncovered for 10 minutes.
- Season with soy sauce and rice vinegar to taste.
- Ladle into bowls and garnish with the spring onions and chilli, adding more soy sauce and vinegar if you need it.
Other Soups
Jerusalem Artichoke and Hazelnut Soup with Crispy Bacon
Chorizo and Spring Greens Broth with Sherry
Smoky, Sweet and Spicy Red Pepper Soup with Feta and Mint
Celeriac Soup with Parsley Oil and Lancashire Cheese Toasts
French Onion Soup with Gruyere Croutons and Parsley Oil
Category: Blogging Events, Healthy, Main Dishes, Soups, Starters, Vegan, Vegetables 19 comments »
April 19th, 2008 at 3:50 pm
Nice! Sea vegetables are a mystery to me, but this soup looks GOOD!
April 19th, 2008 at 5:40 pm
Helen, this is beautiful looking soup. Very unique. You may have another winner! Thanks for participating.
April 19th, 2008 at 7:19 pm
great soup!
April 19th, 2008 at 7:33 pm
Such a colourful soup and I love your use of seaweed, a daring gal!
April 19th, 2008 at 8:20 pm
That soup looks good. I commonly use wakame in miso soups.
April 19th, 2008 at 9:17 pm
That looks really delicious – very fresh and healthy.
April 19th, 2008 at 10:56 pm
Very cleansing soup Helen. I’ve never really experimented with nori and wakame. You make it look so refreshing and vibrant.
April 19th, 2008 at 11:43 pm
Beautiful.
Wakame is high on my list of favourite vegetables, I must say.
Very elegant. Lovely.
April 20th, 2008 at 12:52 am
What a gorgeous looking soup. I’m always looking for ways to eat seaweeds. So good for you, but it’s not an ingredient group I’m very confident with. But this looks perfect.
April 20th, 2008 at 8:03 am
ooooh, very healthy and cleansing. I could do with some of that right now!
April 20th, 2008 at 9:50 am
What a beautiful dish! I’ve never made anything like this, I know I should give it a go sometime…
April 20th, 2008 at 10:34 am
Daziano – They have been a mystery to me too but this worked really well and I have some left over so I can experiment more.
Lisa – Thanks! It’s one of my favourite events.
Babeth – Thanks!
Peter – It is colourful isn’t it? Those garnishes really make it.
Kevin – You are probably much more experienced than me then! I’d never used it before this recipe.
Laura – thanks! I like to have a little health kick every now and then.
Peter G – thanks! Me neither but I’m really glad I did.
Lucy – Thank you, it’s now high up on mine too.
Kathryn – Thanks. I definitely wouldn’t say I was confident with the seaweeds yet but I will get there…
Spaghetti – Healthy and cleansing is always good right?
Nicisme – It was my first time too!
April 20th, 2008 at 4:01 pm
This looks great. I’m like you in that I find myself looking for lighter recipes at this time of year, this fits the bill almost perfectly.
I’ve never even seen low-fat halloumi. Ick. My condolences!
April 21st, 2008 at 10:08 am
Hi Helen,
Thanks for stopping by my blog. Your’s is lovely – great photos. Whereabouts in SE London are you based?
I love seaweed, I sometimes get cravings for it. Wasabi and the Japan Centre both do a great seaweed salad. I have a big pack of dried wakame at home which I use for miso soup so I’ll give your recipe a go, it looks lovely.
April 21st, 2008 at 10:11 am
Fearless Kitchen – Thank you. That halloumi was truly awful!
Lizzie – Thanks, I’m based in East Dulwich, where are you? I also know what you mean about seaweed, I get cravings. I get cravings for a lot of japanese food actually, sushi being a real addiction for me……
April 22nd, 2008 at 11:48 am
I’m in Lee, near Blackheath and Lewisham. Ah, Japanese. I keep meaning to try to make it at home as I get serious cravings for it which is beyond my wallet, but something always comes up!
April 24th, 2008 at 1:22 pm
Love the look of this soup – I haven’t done much experimenting with seaweed although I often use some in miso soup but I see other recipes which inspire me and I never get around to making – this is definitely one of these recipes to go on my to do list!
April 26th, 2008 at 3:54 am
Beautiful soup! It looks incredibly delicious and satisfying and the ingredients are just gorgeous. I’ll be giving this one a try.
April 27th, 2008 at 2:45 pm
http://foodsushi.blogspot.com/
i introduce many kind of japanese food in my site. please link to me, thanks!