Chickpea-Noodle Soup

Update: I made this soup again and this time remembered to take a picture. And as last time, it was just as good. I also put a little bit of sauteed kale to go on top of the soup. It was a great addition. We now call this Thanksgiving-Asian soup.

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I was bad and forgot to take a picture of this. But I can tell you it was one of my favorite soups I've ever made. Oh, and it was so damn easy to make, too.

This simple soup of noodles, chickpeas, veggies and herbs was brought to life with the addition of the miso at the end. I have never used miso before, although I'm sure I've had it many times. But I had no idea how much flavor it was going to add to the soup. For me, it pretty much made the soup amazing.

The consistency was a little less soupy than I think it should have been. I did add 2 oz. more of the noodles than the recipe called for, but I also added another cup of water. I'd say it could probably use a bit more water, but it's not necessary. I like a thicker soup anyway. However, for leftovers, you probably want to add a bit more water to desired thickness as the noodles definitely soak up most of the broth over time.

Because this was quick, easy and so tasty, I'll definitely be making it again.

The recipe is on page 139 of Veganomicon.

Almost All-American Seitan PotPie

Bryan said this was probably one of the best potpie's he's ever had. I had to agree with him. The crust was crusty and chewy, the filling hot and savory and the seitan meaty and dense.

But if you're going to make this, either plan it out over two days or prepare to spend 3 - 3 1/2 hours making it in one day. The good news is that although it took that long to make from start to finish, nothing was that difficult and a lot of the time was waiting time.

Although we've had our own seitan recipe for a while, and it's one we actually love, the one in the book (page 131) was even a little easier and the end result we thought a little better. It was more dense and meaty than our other recipe. However, I just made this again yesterday for Thanksgiving and it was a lot more soft and wet than the first time. I probably just had too much liquid. But after squeezing some out after cooking and then sauteing it the texture was much more solid.

I loved the filling with the hint of mustard flavor and the background of the sage and thyme. It was the a great consistency, too, with the small dice to most of the veggies, to me, a better derivation of potpie.

The only thing I had trouble with was rolling out the dough. But I've done very little of that and once Bryan helped me out I saw how easy it was to get it shaped the way I wanted. I ended up using a smaller casserole dish (they say 3 quarts, but I'd recommend something smaller...maybe 2 quarts) but rolled the dough out to fit a bigger one, so I just doubled it up on top. It made a thick crust, which we both really like.

We will be making this one again, but most definitely on a quiet and chilly weekend.

This recipe is on page 159 of Veganomicon.