Quick Soba Noodle Soup

This is a very easy, very fast soup. You can make it and eat it in less than 15 minutes. It is good as one course of a multi-course meal, or as a light meal. Experiment with the spices and which vegetables you use. Pretty much any fresh or frozen vegetables will be good in this soup (cabbage, zucchini, bok choy, greens of any kind, broccoli, thinly sliced carrots, green beans). The mix I list below is just what I happened to have handy. It takes so little time to cook this soup that you should probably get all your ingredients together ahead of time.

8 frozen soup stock cubes
4 cups water
1/3 cup or less soy sauce
1 & 1/2 teaspoons granulated garlic
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper
several drops sesame oil

Add broth ingredients to a pot and bring to a boil.

2 bunches (175 grams) soba noodles

Once the broth is boiling, add the noodles. Cook almost until done (maybe 2 to 3 minutes). Then turn off the heat and add the following.

1 cup frozen corn
3/4 cup frozen peas
1/2 cup frozen lima beans
2 tender stalks of celery, including the leaves, sliced diagonally
2 teaspoons rice wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper

Let the vegetables warm up, then serve and eat.

If you'd rather use fresh ginger and garlic, add half of each to the pot at the beginning, and add the rest at the end with the vegetables.

Vegetable Curry

A very easy curry, despite the number of ingredients. Experiment with the spice amounts to get the flavour that you want.

1/3 Cabbage, one-inch squares
1 small stalk of celery, finely chopped
2 carrots, sliced diagonally
1 to 2 tablespoons peanut oil

2 small onions, diced
large handful of green beans
2 potatoes, cut into parallelepipeds

2 cups water
1 can coconut milk

5 cloves garlic, minced

1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1/4 cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
1/4 ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon curry powder
1/4 teaspoon caraway seeds
1/4 teaspoon coriander seeds
1/2 teaspoon black pepper corns
1 teaspoon fennel seed
salt, to taste

Put the cabbage, celery, carrots and peanut oil in the pot on high heat, stirring occasionally. This will start to smell like chow mein. Add the onions. Once the onions are translucent, add the green beans and potatoes. Add the water (you may have to adjust the amount). Simmer until the potatoes are done. While this is happening, grind the spices and mix them together. Add the coconut milk and ground spices. Simmer briefly, serve and eat.