Hot and Sour Noodle Soup

1/3 head of cabbage

2 chorizo sausages

1 cup celery

1 cup carrots

4 cups broth

1 cup shiitake mushrooms

1

Moiya asked me to write her up the recipe for my new favourite soup.   I don't really have a 'recipe', but I do have a method!

1.   Fry up an onion or two in a big pot (we did 3 last time).  I also sometimes throw in 1 large chopped up chorizo sausage/bacon to cook along with it (obviously, skip the sausage if you want it to be vegetarian)

2.   Add in other vegetables!

• Cabbage:  slice it up thin-ish, so it is almost like noodles.  It can cook quite a bit, so add it in once the onions look good.  We did about 1/3 of a green cabbage or about 3 cups.
• Mushrooms:  I put in a cup or more of shiitake mushrooms.  i often use fresh, but it is also great to use reconstituted dried ones (1/2 cup)... but then you need to pour boiling water over them 20 minutes ahead to reconstitute and remember to take off the stems...then slice them up, and the water from the mushrooms can go into your soup
• Celery or Shredded Carrot or Peppers (red or orange if i am thinking about colour).  We put in 2 peppers last time we made it.
• The liquid in the vegetables will gradually evaporate

3.  Clear a spot in the bottom of the pot and add a spoonful or two of oil (regular, or coconut or whatever you like), then put a big spoonful of chopped garlic into the oil patch, so the garlic can brown up a bit... maybe 3 minutes?

4.   Add broth, or water (any stock powder that you like) to cover over the vegetables, or as  watery you like.  Then add some soya sauce and vinegar and hot sauce (franks, or siracha, or sambal olek or whatever).   This is totally about your own enjoyment of the balance of hot and sour.  you will get salt from the soya sauce, sour from the vinegar, and hot from the chilis.  This is totally to taste.  I like this to taste, which is irritating to read.  So start with 1 cup of soya sauce and 1 cup vinegar if it look like you have about 12 to 16 cups of soup in your pot by now.  If there is chicken left over from another day's meal, you can shred this up and put it into the soup.  

On adding the hot sauce?  This is going to vary per family.  We like it very hot.

no calories
Look at the back of the package!

5.  Add a package or two of shirataki noodles if you want (good if you are on a low carb diet, but are craving noodles).  Put in any noodles you want.

6.  IF you like your soup thick, you could use a spoonful of cornstarch in water at the end, to thicken it.  I don't because i am trying to keep the carbs low, but if you DO, then it will look more like the hot and sour soup you would get in a restaurant.