Mushroom noodle soup
When I was a kid I went to a primary school just behind my house and as it was so close, I used to come home for lunch most days. My dad worked rotating shifts, so one week in every three, when he was on day shift, I would have school dinners. I didn't mind either way. By lunchtime I was always starving and would eat anything. In the weeks when dad was on night shift or back shift, he would usually make soup from a packet for lunch. Packet soups are still pretty awful, but in those days they were terrible. The one exception was 'chicken noodle'. I loved it. I don't think there was any chicken in it. It was basically vermicelli with a bunch of chemicals, but I thought it tasted great. As I said, I would eat anything.
At that young age I had never even heard of vegetarians. I'm sure if I had, I would have thought them very strange, but I stopped eating chicken noodle soup long before I became vegetarian so it's not something I missed. I hadn't even thought about it until I saw a packet of vermicelli in our local shop. I was trying to decide what type of pasta to choose and when I picked up the packet and saw the little noodles - tiny little things about three centimetres long - I experienced a blast from the past. I decided that when I got home I would try to make vegetarian chicken noodle soup. The first thing to go out of the original recipe was, of course, the chicken (if there ever was any in the first place). I chose mushrooms to replace it and I threw in a red pepper for luck. I didn't want to make the recipe too complicated or time consuming and it worked out rather well. It takes about half an hour from the fridge to the plate. I used ordinary button mushrooms but I think ceps or shaggy ink-caps would be good in this soup too.
Ingredients
200g of mushrooms
1 small sweet red pepper
1 small onion
2 or 3 cloves of garlic
3 or 4 sprigs of parsley
1 bay leaf
A pinch of black pepper
2 vegetable stock cubes
Olive oil
1 cup of vermicelli
2 litres of water
Put the water in a pot and heat it on a medium flame while you chop and fry the vegetables. Everything should be chopped very finely. First fry the onion until it's transparent, then add the pepper. After a few minutes, add the mushrooms and garlic, stir and cover the pan. Sweat the vegetables for about ten minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the contents of the pan to the boiling water along with the stock cubes, bay leaf, black pepper and vermicelli. You could add a little salt but be careful you don't over-do it, as there is a lot in the stock cubes. Cook for another ten to fifteen minutes and stir in the chopped parsley just before serving.