day 21: almost instant rice noodle soup

Ramen and I go back . . . way back. To third grade when it was a special treat for lunch. Or to college when it's all I could afford to eat without starving. No matter how much it grosses us out now that we're well-educated, wise nutrition-decision-making adults, it still calls to me every once in a while. And tonight was one of those nights.

Turns out, I didn't have ramen in the pantry but I did have an instant rice noodle soup bowl that looked pretty enticing. As I stood in the kitchen looking at the ingredients, I thought to myself, I can make a similar noodle bowl without the ridiculous amount of sodium and freeze dried vegetables. So, I did. And it was gooooood.

At first glance the ingredients in the "instant" rice noodle bowl weren't horrendous, but why choose to eat freeze dried anything when you have the real deal? Plus, I wasn't thrilled about eating something I hadn't heard of before -- autolyzed yeast.

I have this general rule of thumb when it comes to food: if I can't pronounce it, or if it sounds complicated and chemical-y, I don't eat it.

MSG with your soup? No thanks.

So, I did a search for autolyzed yeast and discovered how closely related it is to MSG. This is what I found:
" ... autolyzed yeast contains or creates processed free glutamic acid (MSG) during manufacture."

Really? I mean, really? And this is just one example of how food labeling can be misleading and why it's important to do your homework and learn some of the sneaky terms manufacturers use to disguise unpopular (and potentially harming) ingredients.

Moving on.

The nice thing about a lot of Asian noodles is they don't take a long time to cook. Tonight's rice vermicelli noodles took four minutes to cook. Not too shabby. And while they were cooking, I had just enough time to make the broth which was just as simple: water, a few seasonings, corn, peas and spinach.

Seasonings for the broth. No MSG here. 

I'm not sure about you, but I think my rice noodle bowl looks just as tasty as the one on the package :)

The one on the right looks tasty to me!

Peace and love --

~Jo

Almost instant rice noodle soup

Makes 2 servings

3 cups water

3 oz. rice noodles, cooked and rinsed in cold water

1/8 cup peas, cooked (I had fresh peas, but you can use frozen)

1/8 cup corn

3/4 cup spinach

1 teaspoon sea salt

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground garlic

1 teaspoon Herbamare

1 tablespoon sugar (I used cane sugar but you could use agave, stevia or maybe even honey!)

1 tablespoon sesame oil

I forgot to throw in some diced green onions, but they would have made a great addition, too.

Cook rice noodles according to package directions. Drain, rinse with cold water and set aside.

In the meantime, bring 3 cups of water to a boil. Add the salt, ginger, garlic, Herbamare (or onion powder) sugar and oil and stir well. Add peas, corn and spinach and return to a boil, cooking for about 5 minutes. 

Add the noodles and cook for another minute or two.

Ladle into big bowls and enjoy.