Easy, Healthy Cellophane Bean Thread Noodle Soup

I think I might have perished when I gave up pasta (and all things wheat) except for the fact that I discovered Cellophane Bean Thread Noodles!

From Wikipedia: Cellophane noodles (also known as Chinese vermicelli, bean threads, bean thread noodles, crystal noodles, or glass noodles) are a type of transparent noodle made from starch (such as mung bean starch, yam, potato starch, cassava or canna starch), and water.

Cellophane Bean Thread Noodles are cooked by soaking them in warm to hot water for 10 minutes. What i do is boil water in my tea kettle and just pour that water over the noodles in a glass bowl.

To make soup, I just add vegetables that will either cook very fast in standing boiled water or will at least blanche and leave a lovely crispy veg in my soup. In this case, I used beet greens and carrot curls, but spinach would also work. You could also add tofu if you aren't avoiding soy. You could also add fried tofu at the end of the process.

So I place the dry noodles, the veggies, some chopped fresh garlic into a big glass bowl. Then I pour enough boiled water over the ingredients to cover them.

Then I season - in this case I used chili sauce and soy sauce. You could use of course - use Tamari or Miso. If you are avoiding soy, you could use a veg stock cube, fresh herbs etc. It's really up to you.

Let all the ingredients stand in the glass bowl for 10 minutes. I like to use a fork to put the noodles and veg into the serving bowls first and then pour a small amount of the broth on top. This is because the noodles and veg absorb more of the flavor and I only want a little broth so I can keep the flavors concentrated.

The great thing about this dish is it is fast, versatile. It is gluten-free and diary-free.