Chinese-Style Noodle Soup

After a long day at work followed by a strenuous dance lesson, I had to practically crawled up the stairs to our first floor flat and into our little kitchen. When it’s just me to feed, I sometimes loose motivation for food at the end of the day and dinner can be just a bowl of cereal or fried egg on toast. Determined not to be lazy and to find something that would be nutritious and filling for my post-workout body, I rummaged through our fridge and threw together this quick Chinese-style soup.

I was feeling patient enough to chop and slice everything, which is the most time consuming part of the whole meal. Then again, the neat-and-tidy part of me finds slicing vegetables into incredibly thin, itsy witsy pieces rather therapeutic. It's quite nice to do something quiet and controlled after heaving myself around a pole for an hour. Once you're done with the chopping board, you're only ten minutes away from a tasty low-fat meal. I figure it's low fat - there's no oil involved and nothing else except water and vegetables...

This is a great way to use up the crunched up, broken noodles at the bottom of the packet. All of the vegetables - spring greens, carrots, courgette and spring onions - came from the UK so, despite its far Eastern influences and flavour, it's a seasonal dish. Naturally, you can swap the veggies around however you wish depending your own tastes and the seasons. It would be lovely with some poached chicken or prawns but I just had it straight up - it's quicker that way!

Chinese-Style Noodle Soup
Serves two

1 tsp finely grated ginger
1 clove garlic, finely sliced
1 star anise
1 tsp (or ½ cube) vegetable or chicken stock powder
2 large leaves of Spring Green cabbage, finely sliced
50g dried egg noodles
Handful of finely sliced or julienne cut carrot and courgette
Handful of fresh coriander
1 tbsp soy sauce (or to taste)
1 tsp chilli, finely sliced (or to taste)
2 tbsp spring onion, finely sliced

- Put the stock powder, garlic, star anise and grated ginger in a jug and top up with boiling water to 600ml. Stir until the powder has dissolved.
- Pour into a wok or large saucepan and bring to a gentle simmer. Add the spring greens and cook for 3 minutes.
- Separate the coriander leaves from the stems. Chop the stems if you like but I like to leave them whole.
- Add the egg noodles to the soup and stir, ensuring that they are completely submerged in the stock. Cook for 2 minutes then add the coriander stems, carrots and courgettes.
- Cook for a further 2 minutes or until the noodles are tender.
- Add the soy and stir well. Remove the star anise. Taste and adjust the flavours accordingly.
- Garnish with coriander leaves and a scattering of spring onion and chilli before serving. Eat with chop sticks and slurp the soupy liquid straight from the bowl!