Colorful Asian Noodle Bowl

This Asian Noodle Bowl was a very easy and delicious dish that included lots of vegetables and flavors to brighten up any mealtime! This recipe is a great one to play around with because almost any vegetable you have on hand could be incorporated into it. In other words, it is a wonderfully delicious way to get your veggies in and use your produce before it goes bad!

Ingredients:

• 2 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts, sliced into 1/4 inch strips
• 2 Tbsp low-sodium soy sauce
• 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
• 2 Tbsp rice wine vinegar
• 2 Tbsp toasted sesame oil
• 4 cups low-sodium chicken or vegetable broth
• 1 package (8 oz dry) soba or Asian noodles
• ½ cup frozen peas
• 1 cup broccoli spears or florets
• 1 cup cauliflower spears or florets
• ¼ cup sliced red pepper
• 1 small carrot, peeled and grated or sliced
• 4 green onions, thinly sliced
• 4 generous handfuls of kale

Procedure:

1. Combine chicken, soy sauce, garlic, rice wine vinegar and toasted sesame oil in small sauce-pan. Begin to heat mixture over medium heat.
2. Add broth and bring to a gentle boil. Continue cooking for at least 10 minutes until chicken is no longer pink
3. Add noodles, peas, broccoli, and red pepper. Cook until broccoli is tender-crisp. Reduce heat and cover.
4. Stir in carrot and green onion.
5. Before serving, divide kale leaves among four bowls at the bottom of each bowl. Ladle soup into each bowl, dividing ingredients evenly. Garnish with peanuts (optional).
6. Enjoy!

This dish will fill your kitchen with the most wonderful aroma that could make anyone hungry! The aroma of all of the different oils and sauces used was amazing, even though very little of each was used. This goes to show that a little bit of these strongly flavored oils goes a long way. This is important because many of these oils, though delicious, are very high in sodium. Even though a small amount was used, we still chose the low-sodium soy sauce, which has approximately 40% less sodium than the regular version. The recipe also recommends using low-sodium chicken broth, since regular chicken broth usually has around 600 to 1000 mg of sodium per cup while some of the lower sodium options have as low as 150 to 200 mg of sodium per cup. Since we did not have any chicken broth, we improvised by only using ¾ of a bouillon cube to make the four cups of chicken broth instead of the 4 cubes usually used to make this amount. We made this decision because we saw that one bouillon cube had 1,100 mg of sodium in it, meaning the four cubes would be 4,400 mg of sodium for just the broth! We were afraid not using enough chicken broth would affect the flavor but in the end, the strong flavors of the oils and letting the chicken and vegetables soak in the water during and after cooking made it to where you couldn’t even tell!

One important thing we realized when making this or any recipe is that it does not have to be perfect and you don’t have to follow the recipe exactly! For example, the recipe called for some of the ingredients in the recipe to be thinly sliced, grated, or passed through a press, but we just cut them into small to medium pieces. Also, we chopped and included an entire red pepper, even though it only called for ¼ cup. We made the recipe our own by improvising when we didn’t have some of the ingredients that the original recipe called for. The fun part of making recipes is playing around with them by being creative and using what you have! For example, we had some cauliflower that needed to be used so instead of putting two cups of broccoli as the recipe called, we put one cup of broccoli and one cup of cauliflower. We also used kale instead of spinach at the end of the recipe. Finally, we put a few peanuts on top of the dish after it was served to add a little something extra. When you make this recipe, feel free to add any vegetables or extras you like for a different twist!

The great mix of colorful vegetables gives the dish a great appearance and taste! Adding the vegetables in different stages of the cooking also allow for differing and interesting textures of the dish, which add to its appeal. Overall, this dish is an excellent and quick way to add some color and variety to your meals!

Recipe adapted from the “Eat-Clean Diet Recharched” book by Tosca Reno.