Chinese vegetable soup with noodles and ice mushrooms

Ingredients for 4 servings:

• 1 liter of water
• 20 g vegetable stock
• 20 g ginger, fresh or frozen
• 10 g lemongrass, fresh or frozen
• 4 small onions, red
• 2 medium-sized garlic cloves, fresh
• 1 small chili pepper(s), green
• 20 g spring onion(s), green part only
• 20 g carrot(s), coarsely grated
• 2 tbsp sunflower oil
• 1 tbsp sesame oil, dark
• 1 tbsp soy sauce, sweet
• 40 g dried ice mushroom(s)
• 80 g Chinese egg noodles
• 40 g carrot(s)
• 8 green beans, fresh or frozen
• 2 Pepper, red, long, mild
• 2 leaves white cabbage, fresh
• 40 g pak choi, only the green part
• n. B. Mung bean sprouts
• n. B. flowers and leaves

Instructions

Working time approx. 30 minutes; Cooking/baking time approx. 45 minutes; Total time approx. 1 hour 15 minutes

A spicy, vegan soup from Szechuan cuisine.

Heat the water and dissolve the vegetable stock in it. Soak the noodles and mushrooms in half of the stock each. After 5 minutes, strain the stock and use it all. For the stock, peel the ginger and cut it crosswise into thin slices. Defrost frozen goods. Wash the fresh lemongrass, remove the tough stalk at the bottom, discard the brown and wilted leaves, and use only the white parts. Cut these into thin slices. Remove the outer, green leaves if necessary. Weigh the frozen goods and defrost. Trim both ends of the onions and garlic cloves, peel them, and roughly chop them. Wash the chili, cut it crosswise into thin rings, leaving the seeds and discarding the stem. Remove the wilted leaves from the spring onion and cut 20g of the green part into approximately 1cm-wide rings. Wash the carrot, trim both ends, and peel it. Grate the appropriate amount using a coarse grater. Heat a medium-sized pan, add 2 tablespoons of the sunflower oil and let it heat through. Add the onion, garlic, and chili pieces and fry until the onions are translucent. Add the grated carrots and stir-fry for 1 minute. Add the ginger and lemongrass and stir-fry for 2 minutes. Deglaze with half of the soaking broth. Transfer to a covered casserole dish along with the remaining soaking broth. Simmer for 30 minutes. In the meantime, use scissors to trim the soft noodles. Slice the carrot into approximately 3 mm thick slices, then halve the larger slices. Wash the green beans, trim both ends, removing any strings, and cut crosswise into approximately 4 cm long pieces. Defrost frozen goods and cut to length. Remove the stems from the red pepper, wash them, halve them lengthwise, open them up, and remove the seeds. Cut the halves crosswise into approximately 1 cm wide pieces. Remove two leaves from the white cabbage, wash them, cut out the central stalk, and chop the leaves into bite-sized pieces. Separate the leaves from the bok choy head and remove the white part. Halve the green part lengthwise and cut crosswise into approximately 2 cm wide strips. Rinse the mung bean sprouts in a sieve and shake dry. Strain the broth, remove the ginger slices from the strained broth and press them into the strained broth using a garlic press. Squeeze out a little of the remaining broth with a tablespoon and discard. Bring the broth to a boil, add the carrot slices, and simmer for 4 minutes. Add the green beans and chili peppers and simmer for 2 minutes. Add the noodles, mushrooms, white cabbage, and bok choy leaves and simmer for 1 minute. Season the broth with soy sauce, salt, and pepper to taste. Drizzle the sesame oil into the serving bowls. Ladle the soup into the serving bowls, sprinkle the mung bean sprouts on top, garnish as desired, and serve hot with white rice.