Green Tea Noodle Soup with Leek & Shitake

Recently I was on a jaunt to my local Asian supermarket stocking up on anything that looked cool to try out. You know what I found? Green sago! But that is a tangent - one that you can read about here. I also found Green Tea Noodles! They rather excited me. My favourite Japanese restaurant, Jazushi, makes an amazing green tea noodle salad and also served green tea noodles with their amazing Agedashi Tofu (which I always order). So when I was looking for inspiration I immediately grabbed the green tea noodles and cooked them up with a big fresh leek from my garden.

On another note - I've been nominated for the Best Australian Blogs 2012 People's Choice Award - you can vote for me by hitting up this link: http://www.sydneywriterscentre.com.au/bloggingcomp/peopleschoice.html

Ingredients

1 packet of green tea noodles

1 leek, thinly sliced (just use the white parts and save the green parts for another meal)

500g fresh Shitake mushrooms, trimmed and sliced

1 bunch broccolini, cut into 1 inch length pieces

1 litre water

2 sachets of kombu dashi (mine come in 10g sachets)

3 tbsp soy sauce

3 tbsp sesame oil

1/4 cup sake (or substitute 2 tbsp mirin)

Shallots to garnish

To Make

1. Cook the green tea noodles according to the packet directions (should just be boiling them in water for 5 mins). Drain and rinse well under cold water. Set aside.

2. Heat 2 tbsp sesame oil in a saucepan and sauté the leeks until soft. Add the mushrooms, water, dashi powder, soy sauce and sake. Bring to a simmer and simmer, uncovered, for 5 minutes.

3. Add broccolini and the other tablespoon of sesame oil and simmer for a further 5 mins (until the broccolini is just cooked). 

4. Divide the noodles evenly amongst two bowls, sprinkle with chopped shallots and ladle the vegetables and broth over the top. If you like you can drizzle some more sesame oil over the top.

Serves 2.

I've submitted this recipe to the Vegan Virtual Linky Potluck - click here to see the other entries.