Far East Recovery Soup

Don’t be alarmed, no humans or animals were harmed in the days preceding this entry. Quite the contrary, in fact. We just spent the past weekend celebrating another 20something birthday for yours truly!

It was quite the perfect weekend actually-dinners out to fabulous meals, flowing wine and bubbly, and celebratory cocktails with my great friends. My Dad even came to town to partake in the celebrations, and I was quite impressed that he kicked on with us until deciding to catch a cab home at bar close.

 Generally, after a weekend of indulging, and always after returning from vacation, I like to make a big pot of soup – something hydrating and cleansing and detoxifying. By now,  you’re probably thinking I am legitimately a crazy person, making soup in July. But hear me out. This particular soup, which I’ve deemed ‘Far East’ to avoid any sort of incorrect classification of cultural cuisine, is light and summery and full of great veggies.  

For this soup, I used ginger and lemongrass to add some tangy-ness to the broth; as an added bonus ginger is delicious and great for digestion. Lemongrass, long used in Ayurvedic medicine, has fabulous anti-inflammatory properties in addition to be extremely tasty.  I also added some crushed garlic cloves because garlic makes everything better. The shitake mushrooms help to add a good dose of umami, and a few slices from the jalapeno plucked from my thriving plant helped give a bit more warmth to the stock.

For the greens, I used napa cabbage and bok choy; I love to use the baby variety but they were out so this was a first time for me. It still worked! The snow peas seemed like a good fit with the other veggies and fungi so I threw a few in for good measure. I finished off the last of the sambal olek decorating the soup and adding some last minute heat.

I’m pretty sure the mushrooms distracted Tim from the fact that there was no protein souce in the soup, but I heard no complaints. Bear in mind though, if you need something more substantial you can always add a protein; shrimp or tofu (or both!) would be really great here. Conversely, you can also make this soup fully vegan by using a vegetable broth instead.

Far East Recovery Soup

4c chicken or vegetable Stock
1 stalk lemon grass, outer layer removed
½” piece ginger
3 cloves garlic, crushed
½ small jalapeno, sliced
4oz shitake mushrooms, sliced
2c napa cabbage, sliced into ribbons
2c bok choy or baby bok choy
½c snow peas
1tbsp bragg’s liquid amino acids or low sodium soy sauce
1tbsp fish sauce
2tsp sambal olek, for garnish

Bring broth to a simmer over medium heat. Once you have removed the outer layer from the lemongrass, crush the stalk with the flat edge of your knife to bruise the grass and let the oils release. Slice diagonally and add to broth.

I personally like to use my mandolin to slice ginger; you can also just chop it up into chunks and toss into the broth. Crush the garlic and add to other aromatics and simmer while prepping the other veggies. Season the stock with the Braggs and fish sauce.

Slice the shitakes; add half to the soup now. Slice the white ends of the bok choy much like celery, while slicing the leaves lengthwise into strips. Add the whites to the broth to soften.

Slice the cabbage into wide strips and continue to let the broth simmer. Add the snow peas and shitakes, simmer for another few minutes, then the bok choy. Simmer another few minutes, then add the cabbage last, just before serving.

Garnish with green onions, sambal olek, or siracha if you like.