soup season!

I don’t think anyone would argue with the statement that it is soup weather in New York. Everyone’s freaking out, preparing for this next bout of snow. So I’ve been having an intense craving for brothy noodle soups. And gumbo. Opposite end of the soup spectrum, but equally delicious. So I made both!

Saturday night was a chicken and sausage gumbo, accompanied by a friend’s delicious salad with blue cheese, apples and walnuts, and some incredibly tasty (and dangerous) tequila cocktails.

Tonight was brothy noodle night – I saw a delicious-looking recipe on 101 Cookbooks and went to buy all the ingredients only to find that the nice grocery store in my neighborhood was out of vegetable broth. Not believing this to be a neighborhood-wide epidemic, I went to the crappy grocery store in my neighborhood and guess what? NO VEGETABLE BROTH. I was not in the mood to concede and buy Swenson chicken broth instead, nor did I want to trek to another store in the impending storm, so I bought a few items and harumphed my way home, cursing the city.

But this is why I always have miso paste on hand. A soup can be had! I then discovered that I had two cups of frozen homemade vegetable broth too. So here’s what I did. Vegetable broth + 4 cups of water + several coins of ginger + 1/2 finely diced jalapeno + dried shitake mushrooms. Simmer for 10 minutes, fish out the ginger. Add 1 T. miso paste and stir in, plus a couple tablespoons of soy sauce (taste after adding the miso to make sure it’s not already too salty). Add 1/4 package of angle hair pasta or other thin noodles, cook until just shy of al dente (a few minutes). Turn off the heat. Add a few big handfuls of baby spinach leaves, a generous squeeze of lime juice, and some cilantro. Enjoy!