Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 30 minutes
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients:
- Vegetable, chicken or beef broth (store-bought or homemade)
- 1 block of tofu, cubed
- ¼ Chinese cabbage, finely sliced
- 6 shiitake mushrooms
- 8 scallions, white tops discarded and green parts chopped
- 6 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
- 1/4 cup coarsely chopped peeled fresh ginger
- 4 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1 small sweet red pepper, seeded and thinly sliced
- 3 ounces udon noodles, cooked according to package directions
- 2 teaspoons sesame oil
Preparation:
- Bring broth up to a boil.
- Add garlic and ginger to broth and reduce to simmer.
- Add mushrooms and pepper and cook over low heat for 10 minutes.
- Drain noodles and toss with sesame oil.
- Coarsely chop green tops of green onions.
- Add noodles and scallions to broth.
- Simmer for 3 minutes.
- To serve soup, divide between 4 serving bowls.
- For protein: Add chicken, fish, sliced brisket, shrimp, hard-boiled eggs or cubed tofu
- For vegetables: Add baby bok choy, broccoli or carrots
- For seasonings: kochukaru (Korean crushed red pepper) or sambal
The oldest noodles have been eaten and enjoyed in Asia for over 4,000 years, but the modern wheat-based noodles did not reach Asia until around AD100. These wheat noodles quickly spread from China to other Asian countries like Korea.
In Korea, noodles symbolize longevity because of their long and continuous form. That is why they are served at wedding celebrations and important Korean birthdays. Korean noodles are called “gooksu” in Korean or “myun” in hanja (Chinese characters borrowed and used in Korean language with Korean pronunciation). Although noodles have been part of Korean cuisine since ancient times, wheat was expensive so noodles weren't eaten or enjoyed everyday or every week until the 1940s.
Ginger is native to Asia where has been used as a cooking spice and as medicine for thousands of years. It is used to make medicinal and herbal teas, to increase the temperature in the body and also to increase the body's metabolic rate.
The part of the plant that we use is not the root, but the underground stem, or rhizome. Ginger contains many health benefiting essential oils such as gingerol and zingerone. Gingerols help improve the intestinal motility and have anti-inflammatory, painkiller (analgesic) and anti-bacterial properties.
Ginger has been used to aid digestion and treat stomach problems, gas, diarrhea and nausea for more than 2,000 years. More recently, it has demonstrated some effectiveness in preventing motion sickness. It has also been used to treat the common cold, stomach ulcers, headaches, menstrual cramps, migraines, arthritis and colic.
Ginger is low in calories and contains no cholesterol, and is a rich source of many essential nutrients and vitamins such as pyridoxine (vitamin B-6) and pantothenic acid (vitamin B-5). It also contains good amount of minerals like potassium, manganese, copper, and magnesium.
