Vietnamese Noodle Soup

So I’m back in the blogosphere! It has taken several years but amazingly (and rather terrifyingly) I’m done with my degree. Finally things can return to normal and I can return to blogging without the impending doom of deadlines or dissertation stress.

I had the house to myself last week so rather than spending the night periodically freaking out about monsters under the bed (and every other available dark space), I had a dinner date with a friend, she bought the wine, and this is what I cooked.

It pretty much is the perfect dinner party meal, it looks and tastes impressive and it’s a bit different, but it actually really isn’t effortful. You can prep everything beforehand and if you make the broth in advance and do all your chopping all you have to do is sweat the herbs and throw everything in a big pot. Occasionally I make this with chicken as well but since my friend is vegetarian/occasionally vegan I omitted the chicken in favor of tofu but in all honestly I’m not sure it needs either, guess it just depends if your feeling the need for some protein.

Serves 2

2 cloves of garlic, chopped

½ a hot red chili, chopped

zest of 1 lime

thumb sized piece of ginger, chopped

Enough tofu for 2, cubed

various green veg (I use pak choi and green beans)

Enough noodles for 2, cooked according to packet instructions

½ a can of coconut milk

1 veggie stock cube

500ml water

juice of 2 limes

large handful of coriander, chopped

large handful of mint, chopped

2 tbsp soy sauce

Heat the water and stir in the stock cube, add the coconut milk, soy and lime juice and taste/adjust to your liking so you get a good balance of salt, sour and sweet flavors  in the broth.

In a large pan or wok, fry the tofu until golden then sweat off the first 4 ingredients.

Add the veg and cover with the broth and simmer until everything is tender.

Add the noodles, bring back up to heat then stir in the herbs and ladle into large bowls.