Gingery Noodle Soup

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. I am back home, after I spent two days at my parents house. I'm actually quite happy to be back in my kitchen, I feel comfortable here. In my parents kitchen I always feel a bit unsure of myself. My mother is a bit bossy when it comes to cooking, and a bit conservative. I just dont want to be explaining why I want to do something differently anymore, and so I stick to cooking what everyone likes, if I cook at all when I'm there.

I only moved out of my parents house two years ago. I only really started cooking about a year ago. And now I just can't accept the way we always did things as "the only" way. I don't mean to change my parents, and my brothers and my sister still live at home and have to find out what they want when they move out, too. But only when I'm at home, in my kitchen, the one with only one flat surface, with the little wonky garden table that we eat almost every meal at, with the very impractical floor-to-ceiling built-in cabinets and the old, too hot, oven - only then can I really cook.

I'm back home, and I needed a break from the food I ate over Christmas. It was good food, but it was not my food. Do you ever feel the same?
So I made this soup. It's light. Gingery. Slightly spicy. And so refreshing after days of eating and drinking too much.



Gingery Noodle Soup

Ingredients:
2 spring onions
1 knob of ginger, my piece had about the size of two walnuts
2 cloves of garlic
2 fennel bulbs
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp vegetable oil (I usually have sunflower or canola oil at home)
3 tbsp soy sauce
1 tablespoon miso
1 bouillon cube (or you could probably use more miso instead, or another bouillon cube if you dont have miso on hand. Just make sure the soup doesn't get too salty)

soba noodles, or any other kind of noodles you like, spaghetti would probably work, too
you could also add little slices of tofu, I planned on doing this but forgot

Slice the spring onions, garlic and fennel into thin slices. Grate the ginger right into the pot you want to make your soup in. (I started grating the ginger with the skin still on, less waste of ginger and time. It works well, and you really don't have any hard chunks in the soup) Add the white part of the onions and the oil, turn on medium-high heat and let it all heat up. Sauté for a minute or two, then add the fennel and garlic. Sauté for another minute, add the soysauce. Add about 2 litres of water and the miso and bouillon. Bring to a boil and cook for at least 5 minutes.
In another pot bring water to a boil. Cook the noodles according to the instructions on the package. I cooked my soba without salt for about 5 minutes, drained them, rinsed them well with cold water and added them into the soup. Turn off the heat, wait another minute and serve the soup in bowls. Sprinkle some of the green parts of the spring onions onto each bowl. I also added some Nanami Togarashi (japanese 7-ingredients red pepper powder), or just use regular red pepper flakes to make it a bit more spicy.

Eat the noodles using chopsticks and drink the soup, feels and tastes way better than with a spoon.

Serves 4-6.