What is Purple and looks like Silly Strings? Today's Soup.

Earlier this week, my good friend Laura came by with her daughter (she is only a couple of months older than Ella and we have already decided they would be best friends, hopefully that's cool) and I was excited to prepare us a tasty lunch and show her around Ella's playground (the entire house), so I went for a classic of mine, with a few twists : a ramen soup, with wild carrots tinting the noodles a beautiful lilac tone as well as each vegetable sliced 'à la julienne', making the bowl look like it had been invaded with silly strings- which clearly made me very happy. Two kids under 1 and two busy moms, I clearly chose very wisely with this recipe. And here's why.

Nothing says motherhood like a one-pot dinner. I cannot tell you the number of times since I gave birth that I pulled the ‘of course I’d love to cook for you!’ before Ella’s bedtime and she ended up crying at the sight of ‘strangers’ (friends and family, but nothing she’s quite grasped or taken interest into quite yet) and I would try to hold/ rock her whilst yelling out instructions from the living room (‘squash goes out the oven NOW!’)- so thank you for your patience, world. Of course this gets better everyday, but I will always choose to hug her over cooking, so hopefully your soup isn't cold but if it is, you can still taste the amount of love that went into it!

You will need,

Shallot (1, thinly sliced)

Garlic (4 cloves at the very least- come on you know this by now)

Zucchini (2, sliced with a mandolin)

Wild carrots (I used around 6 small ones, peels)

Noodles (enough for 2)

Chili oil (Laura lived in Asia and is used to the spiciest soups which means I didn’t have to go easy on our broth!)

Ginger powder (1 tbsp)

Sesame seeds (a few pinches, for garnish)

Vegetable broth (6 cups)

Soy sauce (3 tbsp)

Hoi Sin (2 tbsp)

Fish sauce (a few drops)

Sesame oil (2 tbsp)

A few simple steps,

1. Start by tossing the garlic and shallots in the sesame oil with salt and pepper until they are tender, over medium heat in (you’ve guessed it!) any medium soup pot you own

2. Then add the broth, all liquids- soy sauce, fish sauce, Hoi Sin (including loads of the chili oil, giving it that glorious orange tint) and lower the heat

3. Let simmer for 15-20 minutes

4. Add the vegetables, and the soup will be ready to serve and sprinkle with sesame seeds when they are soft (the goal is to have the carrots and zucchinis cooked but still a little crunchy!)

ZERO WASTE : whenever you use a mandolin or a regular peeler, you usually get these bits, either fallen parts or simply the vegetable becoming too thin to peel. Chop them up and throw them into the broth! It doesn't always have to look pretty, simply delicious and edible! Just so you know, although they don't typically make it into my pictures, those parts always end up on a plate.