Tea Treat Tuesday — Green Tea Noodle Soup

If you are new here, you may not know A Cuppa and Conversation originally started out as a food/recipe blog called A Solitary Feast. For 8 years I adapted family sized recipes into small batch recipes with 3 servings or less. So, it wasn’t much of a stretch to find ways of incorporating my new passion for tea into my old passion for cooking and baking. I was amazed at the number of recipes I found that incorporate actual tea, brewed or tea leaves, into the recipe. I am going to share some of my small batch adaptions of the recipes I found here. If possible, I will link to the full-sized recipe as well.

We are going to start our tea cooking adventures with a soup. Yes, I know it’s the middle of summer and that it is hot, but I love soup and eat it all year around. Plus, this soup recipe is quick and easy. I will be making it often on those nights I am hungry but don’t want to spend a lot of time in the kitchen.T

What type of green tea should I use? The recipe called for 4 Bigelow green tea bags. I had those on hand so that is what I used. You could use any green tea bags as long as they are plain green tea and not flavored. Make sure whatever brand you choose is one you enjoy drinking. If it doesn’t taste good to you when you drink it, it won’t taste good when you cook with it.

Can I make this soup with loose leaf green tea? You certainly can. Just use one teaspoon loose leaf green tea for each tea bag. You can just toss them in the water and then strain them out before you add the carrots and the noodles. You could also use disposable tea filters if you have them. I tried this soup with some Jamine green tea and Gun Powder green tea, both tasted good to me.

What are Soba noodles, and can I use any other noodles? Soba noodles are a traditional Japanese noodle made from buckwheat flour instead of wheat flour. You can find them in the Asian or ethnic section of your grocery store. If you can’t find them you can use Udon noodles, Ramen noodles or even thin spaghetti. If you have leftover cold noodles or rice you could use that too.

Green Tea Noodle Soup

From Bigelow.com

4 cups water

4 teabags plain green tea

1 TBS minced garlic

1 tsp grated ginger

1 TBS rice wine vinegar

1 TBS soy sauce

2 shredded carrots

1/4 cup chopped green onions

2 TBS minced cilantro, Optional, for garnish

In a 1 1/2 quart sauce pan, bring the water, teabags, garlic, ginger, soy sauce and vinegar to a boil. Reduce heat to medium, let simmer for 10 minutes. Remove teabags.

Add carrots and noodles. Cook noodles until they are done to your liking, between 2-10 minutes, depending on what type of noodle you use.

Serve with a sprinkle of cilantro, green onions and a dash of hot sauce if desired.

Instapot Mini Spaghetti and Meat Sauce

I got my  Insta Pot Lux 3 quart mini on Sunday.  The first thing I made was Christina Lane’s Insta Pot spaghetti and meat sauce.  As  you know,  I don’t usually use store-bought ingredients in my cooking.  However,  I found a Whole 30 compliant marinara sauce i wanted to try for my next Whole 30 so I thought I would use this recipe to try it.

The quality of the sauce really matters in this recipe. I used Rao’s Roasted Garlic Marinara sauce that I bought at Walmart.  For a store-bought sauce, it wasn’t bad.  The store bought sauce made the hardest part of this  recipe deciding if you stirred the raw noodles enough to prevent them from sticking together

This recipe is enough to feed one very hungry person or two normally hungry people with a salad.

Instapot Spaghetti and Meat Sauce

C leaning Out The Pantry #4 Pressure Cooker Chicken Noodle Soup

Have I told you lately how much I love my pressure cooker?  Today all I wanted was chicken noodle soup.  Not any old can or packet of chicken flavored soup like substance but real, like my mom makes it chicken noodle soup.  Problem was, even though it isn’t a complicated recipe, it still takes about an hour and a half to make on the stove.  I didnt get  home from work until after 8 pm and was totally exhausted from a busy work day.  I didn’t have an hour and a half to spend in the kitchen plus time to let the soup cool down enough to put in the fridge before I was going to be out like a light.  So I decided to try making my mom’s chicken noodle soup in my 6 quart pressure cooker.  I just threw everything except the noodles into the pressure cooker and about 25 minutes later had the chicken noodle soup I so desperately wanted.  The best part it was sooooo good, possibly the best chicken noodle soup I ever made.  Have i told you lately how much I love my pressure cooker?

Pantry items used – Chicken boullion cubes

Mom's Chicken Noodle Soup In The Pressure Cooker

• Difficulty: Easy
• Print

1 – 2 stalks celery, chopped

1-2 carrots, peeled and chopped

6 cups chicken broth

2 bone in, skin on chicken thighs, skin removed and excess fat trimmed

1 cup raw egg noodles

Chicken boullion to taste

Toss celery, carrots, chicken broth and chicken thighs into the pressure cooker. Lock the lid.  Cook on high pressure for 8 minutes.  Use a quick release to release the pressure.  Turn the pressure cooker to the saute setting and bring the soup to a boil.  Add the noodles and chicken boullion to taste and cook until they reach the desired tenderness. Meanwhile, remove the chicken from the bone and chop.  Add the chicken to the soup.  Place in bowls and serve.