Crab Soup for Crabby Weather
A Comfort Food Special – By Ilona-Jade Errington
Following the Summer heat wave I’m finding it hard to adjust to wearing full length jeans and proper shoes again, but this week it seems like flip flop season really has completely left us behind. As I nipped out of the office to buy yet ANOTHER chocolate bar one grey afternoon it hit me – my winter hibernation has begun! Rather than my afternoon snack being fresh strawberries and lemonade all I’ve been craving is some good old comfort food.
Whilst ad campaigns will tell us that all a girl ever wants is a big bar of galaxy (and don’t get me wrong – I love the stuff!) I think that comfort food is a very particular, nostalgic thing. Whether that may be a cup of milky tea with a large spoon of sugar, or toast with jam AND peanut butter, I believe that nothing beats a good old this is what my mama made me when I was little recipe. So that’s what I’m going to share with you today: My mum’s crab soup, the ultimate antidote to crabby weather blues!
Now, please don’t get put off by the title, in true comfort food style this is a really simple, fast recipe that tastes great AND is healthy – what a bonus!
THE RECIPE
This recipe is… Pescetarian Lactose-Free Ingredients (Serves 2-3) 1 tin sweetcorn (creamed) 1 tin crab meat (lumps, not shredded) 2 spring onions, finely chopped 1 tbsp. finely minced ginger 1 clove garlic*1 small chili, finely sliced (*for optional oomph!) 1 tsp. corn flour (don’t forget to mix this with a little cold water to make a paste before cooking) 1 tbsp. light soy sauce 1 tbsp. olive oil 1 vegetable stock cube 1 small cup hot water (to melt the vegetable stock cube into) 2 nests of fine egg noodles Salt Pepper
Method
1. Prepare. This sounds silly as step 1, but it makes the cooking process so much less stressful if all you need to do is add and stir 🙂 Chop, mince, just do it all now!
2. Pour the creamed corn, vegetable stock and corn starch in to a pot and simmer.
3. Pour hot water onto the noodles and leave for 3 minutes.
4. Fry the ginger, garlic, chilli (*optional) and the white bits of spring onion in the olive oil for a few minutes until golden and crispy.
5. Add the contents of the frying pan to the simmering sweetcorn broth, stir and leave for another 5 minutes.
6. Drain the crab meat and the noodles, add these to the broth and simmer for another couple of minutes.
Add the soy sauce, sprinkle salt and pepper to taste, and stir.
Finally, garnish with the green part of the spring onion (chopped), serve, and enjoy!
For a gluten-free alternative why not try replacing the noodles? Holland & Barrett do a great organic plant variety called ‘Zero Noodles’ (made from the Konjac Plant) which cook in the same way 🙂 And for a vegetarian alternative why not try replacing the crab for oyster mushrooms?
Happy eating!
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Tags: Comfort Soup cooking Domestic food Lifestyle
Categories: a little piece of joy Ilona's Weekly Munchies