Udon Noodle Soup

[bif]

http://cookingwiththemark.blogspot.com

Ingredients
6 T Shiro Miso
1T dashi
1/2 pound Udon noodles
handful of green beans, chopped
Several dashes reduced sodium soy sauce
1/2 pound shitake mushrooms, finely chopped
1/2 pound white mushrooms, chopped
3-4 cups baby spinach, chopped
3-5 cups purple cabbage, chopped
1/2 green pepper, chopped
1/2 red pepper, chopped
10 c water
dash sesame oil

Directions
In a large pot, cook cabbage and peppers for a couple minutes in a bit of oil until softened. Add water, Miso, dash and soy sauce. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Cook noodles according directions and rinse in cold water. In a separate pan, sauté mushrooms until nicely browned. Add mushrooms, green beans and spinach to soup and cook for 5 minutes. Then add noodles a dash of sesame oil and serve.

[TreasonousBastard]

1. OK, this looks good and I'll make it one day, but...

what's so special about Udon noodles? Aren't they just Chinese spaghetti?

[bif]

2. Well, they're thick Japanese noodles.

The nice thing about them is, you can cook them, rinse them in cold water and add to the soup later. And for some reason, they don't seem to expand and get all mushy in the soup. If you can't find them, a thicker noodle like linguini would work just fine. I'm amazed at how many different kinds of noodles there are at the Japanese grocery store. I think I have about 25 ponds of it in my basement!

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

3. Soba noodles would also work.