Feel Good Noodle Soup

I  love a dish that the whole family or at least most of the family will eat. When I made this for dinner on Monday I wasn't expecting this to be one of those dishes, but to my surprise the boys and Millie loved it. Of course, a few bits had to be fished out for each one of them but as it's mildly spiced the flavours weren't too overpowering. Both Donal Skehan and Clare from An American in Ireland are regularly tweeting pics of gorgeous noodle dishes that always look fabulous so I'm on a mission to introduce more of these dishes to our family meals. This recipe for a noodle and bean soup will certainly be on the menu again as it's so delicious as well as being very nutritious. 

I got this recipe from a blog called 101 Cookbooks which always has the most amazing photography. This recipe was posted in early January and, in turn, was called New Year Noodle Soup. As soon as I read the recipe I wanted to try it out. After Christmas, most in our house were suffering from some sickness or other so this was a good time to make a lovely comforting soup. It was nice but I made one mistake as I used rapeseed oil to caramelise the onions and it really didn't work. Now I am a big fan of rapeseed oil and love to use it for frying meat or drizzling on veg before roasting or even in place of sunflower oil in my carrot cakes. However, when it comes to frying onions and to sauté mushrooms they really don't work well together. This time I used olive oil, as indicated in the recipe, and it worked perfectly. I actually changed very little to the original recipe. I added double the quantity of noodles as the boys love them but feel free to add less, for more of the soup and less of the noodles! I also didn't have any cilantro leaves so I substituted these with flat leaf parsley. The recipe called for walnuts and as we prefer toasted hazelnuts this is what I added. A delicious feel-good dinner - try it out.

Feel Good Noodle Soup

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 onion, thinly sliced

1 long red chilli finely chopped

1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

8 1/2 cups / 2 litres good-tasting vegetable stock/broth

1 tin/350g mixed beans, rinsed

1 tin/400g cooked chickpeas, rinsed

300g medium egg noodles, cooked

3 1/2 oz / 100g fresh spinach leaves, finely shredded

2 tbsp finely chopped flat parsley leaves

2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill

juice of one lime

Toppings

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon butter

1 large onion, thinly sliced

100 ml sour cream or crème fraiche{use low-fat if watching calories}

50g /2 ounces of toasted, chopped hazelnuts

Method

1.   Heat the oil in a large, thick-bottomed soup pot over medium heat. Add the onion and the chilli and cook until they soften, a few minutes. Add the spices and cook for another thirty seconds, just long enough for them to toast a bit.

2.   Stir in the stock. Bring to a boil and add the split beans and chickpeas to the pot. Cook for about 15 minutes. Season with salt to taste.

3.   In the meantime, you can prepare the toppings. Heat the olive oil and butter in a large frying pan over medium heat. Cook the onion, stirring occasionally, until golden and caramelized, for about 10 minutes. Set aside.

4.   Just before you're ready to eat, add the cooked noodles to the simmering soup and cook until al dente. Stir in the spinach, parsley and dill. Add a big squeeze of lime to the pot or serve wedges along with each bowl of soup. Taste and adjust the seasoning to your liking.

5.   Serve right away, each bowl topped with a big spoonful of caramelized onions, some crème fraîche, and a sprinkling of hazelnuts.