I hope you all are staying safe, healthy and positive. My goal over the next few weeks (months?) is to provide you with some easy to make recipes that my family has been enjoying during this time of stress and craziness. This soup is one I make often for lunch as it truly takes about 15 minutes. As always, use it as a base, and substitute ingredients as you like, because please oh please do not go to the store to buy any of these ingredients. Can’t think of a good ingredient substitute, email me, I’ll help you out.

For example, I used bass in this recipe, however I have made this with shrimp, already cooked leftover shredded chicken, sausage meatballs, or have skipped the fish altogether and substituted it with a few soft cooked eggs. Don’t have kale? Don’t like kale? Skip it. Or add in mustard greens, chard, cabbage, spinach even. Mushrooms on hand, slice them up and add them in! I usually just use water for this specific soup, and let the sautéed onions, garlic, then soy sauce, fish sauce and ginger help infuse the liquid. I think it is perfect for a lunch soup, but you can always make this a richer broth by using a vegetable or chicken broth.

And let’s talk about those soba noodles. I have made this plenty of times not using any noodles and just keeping this very light and healthy. And sometimes we serve this over rice, which is delicious. Can you use any noodle? Sure, this is your time. Udon would be fantastic fyi.

Have scallions, put them on top. Sesame seeds, sprinkle a way. Egg? Make a quick 6 minute egg. Hot sauce, chili paste, all good! This shouldn’t be complicated. We have enough stress going on in the world and trying to keep things calm at home. Stay safe, talk soon.

Soy Fish Noodle Bowl
Serves 4

INGREDIENTS:

1 tablespoon coconut oil
1 medium yellow onion, thinly sliced
1 garlic clove, peeled and thinly sliced
4 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 2” piece ginger, peeled, cut into thin matchsticks
2 6-8 oz. Skinless black bass fillets, cut into 1 1/2” pieces
1 bunch of kale, ribs removed and coarsely chopped
1 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
Cooked soba noodles, or noodle of choice, per noodle package

STEPS:

In a large saucepan or dutch oven, warm coconut oil over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic, season with salt and pepper and cook for a few minutes until soft, stirring occasionally. Add 4 cups water (or chicken/vegetable broth), 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, ginger, soy sauce, and fish sauce, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, and taste the broth, now is a good time to adjust the amounts of soy sauce and fish sauce. Add the fish, cover the pot and cook for 6 minutes. Remove lid, add kale, cover pot back up and cook for another 3-4 minutes until fish is opaque.

Divide 4 bowls with cooked soba noodles. Top the noodles with fish, kale and broth. Drizzle with sesame oil and serve with chili paste.