Tart London: How to make a healthy mushroom noodle soup

Jemima Jones and Lucy Carr-Ellison serve up a noodle soup that’s guaranteed to put a spring in your step
Lucy Carr-Ellison5 March 2016

We’re both obsessed with the noodle soups you get in South East Asia — from the spicy laksas of Thailand to soothing Japanese ramens and fragrant pho, which is eaten for breakfast in Vietnam. With its mix of greens, noodles, herbs and broth, it’s a brilliant — and healthy — way to kickstart your day (add a fried egg and chilli for the perfect hangover cure).

This restorative mushroom noodle soup was inspired by our travels in the region and it’s one of the most popular dishes we serve on shoots, particularly when the crew are starting to feel weary. The combination of spice, fresh herbs and veg gives you a real zing of energy, without any heaviness. It’s also inexpensive — handy when we’re on location cooking for a couple of hundred people — and the customising possibilities are endless. It’s delicious topped with anything from sesame kale to pulled pork or marinated tofu.

When cooking for ourselves we make it with chicken stock because it has more depth of flavour, but you can use vegetable stock if you like. And don’t get too hung up on making your own. If you want a quick, convenient and healthy meal, use store-bought fresh stock — we recommend the Heston from Waitrose range. For veg we love Parkway Greens in Camden. It’s such a beautiful shop and has the best-quality produce, as well as stocking exotic ingredients.

Restorative mushroom noodle soup

Ingredients ( serves 2 ) ​

1 tin coconut milk

Dried mushrooms, pre-soaked

3 lime leaves

500ml stock (vegetable or chicken)

1 tsp fish sauce

1 tbsp soy sauce

1 garlic clove, thinly sliced

Mix of mushrooms (shitake and chestnut work well)

Tofu

Sesame oil

Spring onions

Radishes

Chillies

Udon noodles

Coriander leaves, to garnish

Sesame seeds, to garnish

For the paste

2in piece of ginger, peeled

3 shallots

2 red chillies

2 lemongrass sticks

3 garlic cloves

2 lime leaves

Handful of coriander stalks

1 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tbsp coconut oil

Method

Blitz all the paste ingredients together in a food processor until smooth. Cook in a pot over a medium heat for 10 minutes, stirring constantly to make sure it doesn’t burn. Add the coconut milk, dried mushrooms, lime leaves, stock, fish sauce and soy sauce. Simmer over a medium heat for at least 20 minutes.

Heat a glug of oil in a pan, add the garlic and gently sauté, then add the mushrooms and keep stirring so as not to burn the garlic. Saute for 5 minutes or until the mushrooms are cooked.

Next, dry the tofu between sheets of paper towel and cut into cubes, fry in a pan with sesame oil until crisp and golden, then add a glug of soy sauce. While this is cooking, slice up the spring onions, radishes and chillies for your topping.

Cook the noodles according to the packet instructions. Serve in a deep bowl with the broth, mushrooms and tofu, adding all the toppings and finishing with a few coriander leaves and sesame seeds.

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