There are many reasons to eat soup. When you’re sick, it’s heavenly. When you’re cold, it warms you up. When you’ve been eating heavily or poorly, it lightens you up. Or it should if it’s made from quality ingredients. No cheap commercial broths, and no seasoning packages that come with dried noodles.
I had dulse (seaweed), dried mushrooms, ginger, garlic, green onions, and zucchini. All together, I had soup.
Heat a large pot of water and when it comes to a boil remove it from the heat and add the dried mushrooms and seaweed (about a handful of each, maybe). It really doesn’t matter how much, as long as it’s completely covered in water. Put a lid or a large plate on top of the pot and leave it for 30 minutes to resuscitate the vegetables.
Then heat another large (empty) pot over medium heat just until it’s warm. Don’t let it smoke or burn. Pour a tsp of olive oil into one place in the pot (don’t swirl it around) and then add the ginger and garlic – diced – to the oil that you pool on the side of the pot. This way you don’t need to add a ton of oil and your ginger and garlic will cook and not burn. Let it cook for maybe 30 seconds or a minute and then pour in about 6 cups or so of water. If you really want to speed this along you can bring the water to a boil in another pot in advance so it doesn’t need to reheat once you add it to the soup pot. Drain the mushrooms and seaweed (reserving the soaking liquid if desired) and add to the soup pot. The only reason I don’t use the soaking liquid as broth is because I find it’s too salty from soaking the seaweed. It’s a very flavourful, thick broth, so adding a little of it to the soup pot is good, but all of it is too much. Maybe a 1/2 cup. You can dilute the soup with more water or soaking liquid later if you like.
Add the chopped zucchini (I put in about 5, but I love zucchini) and return the soup to a boil. Boil just a few minutes until the zucchini are slightly softened, and enjoy. Just the broth alone is still very good and easy on the stomach because the seaweed keep releasing their gooey broth. Avoid the caps on the mushrooms if they’re shiitakes and they’re tough. Other than that, top with green onions if desired and enjoy. You can add herbs if you like – anything that won’t mess up your digestion (i.e. probably avoid hot sauce, and that’s coming from me, the chili paste queen)
It’s a really boring soup, I know, but it goes down slippery and easy, and when you’re sick that’s maybe just what you need.
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