Egg-Topped Glass Noodles Soup

Egg-Topped Glass Noodles Soup

Fall is in the air which fits the bill for hot and soul-satisfying soups for lunch. All the left-over bits of vegetables and tofu from the fridge form the base for this meal in a bowl. 

Egg Adds More Protein

My preference for glass noodles over egg noodles lies in its make-up. Glass noodles are made from mung beans whereas egg noodles are made from wheat so there are less carbohydrates in the former. Tofu is high in protein and low in fat which makes it an excellent choice for this meal, but any form of protein works in the soup.

Fast & Easy Prep

The ingredients for the soup were previously chopped and left over, making it really easy to dump into some chicken broth. The glass noodles simply need to be soaked in boiling broth and cut with scissors into smaller lengths directly in the saucepan. I used triple-washed baby spinach, kale and other greens that came prepped from the store. To add some more flavour, the egg was beaten with a touch of chicken bouillon powder before topping the soup.

Thai Tom Yum Goong - Hot & Sour Shrimp Soup

Thai Hot & Sour Soup

Bowl of Tom Yum

The inspiration for this soup came from a friend on Facebook asking for a Hot & Sour Soup recipe which led me to Closet Cooking. We had it for lunch for lunch today which along with an egg roll each, made for a filling and satisying meal. Because some of the ingredients were missing from my pantry, I had to make some modifications so I've described, below, what I did to reproduce the recipe.

The hot part of this soup came from a combination of minced green chilies and gochujang, a Korean chili paste that I love! The sour aspect came simply from the juice of one lime. I dropped the squeezed out rinds of lime into the soup and fished them out before serving. This made up for the absence of lemon grass. 

Shrimp in Spicy Tomato Garlic Sauce

Shrimp in Spicy Tomato Garlic Sauce

Lee Kum Kee makes a great tomato-garlic sauce, but when that's not available it's quite easy to assemble similar ingredients. Shrimp takes such a short time to cook that it's perfect when dinner needs hurrying up. 

I used half a pound of large shrimp (20-30 shrimp per pound) that were already peeled and cleaned. The base of the sauce is tomato puree that was made spicy with the help of Gochujang (Korean chili paste) which has a hint of sweetness. For a more tomato-ey taste, tomato ketchup added both colour and served to thicken the sauce. Minced garlic and Thai red chili peppers along with a sliced onion rounded out the flavours.

This shrimp dish is best served over a mound of steamed, long-grain rice.