This soup is SO pretty – one drop of blue food coloring makes it so! I can’t stand to eat weird-looking food like this, but my kids love it (of course). So I merely omit the food coloring in my serving. Please be forewarned that if your kids are anything like mine, they will ask you to label every single “sea creature” in the soup (the noodles = sea snakes, the carrots = crabs, etc etc).
I am not one of those, “Make-A-Huge-Pot-Of-Soup-And-Eat-For-A-Week” moms. Mostly because I think most soup is good fresh. This recipe will make enough for four lunchtime servings, with a side of fresh fruit or veg.
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon canola oil
2 cloves garlic
4 cups chicken stock (or veggie, or water – not beef due to dark color)
1 – 2 ounces buckwheat noodles
1 carrot
1 rib celery
2 leaves romaine, washed
1/2 pint cherry tomatoes (2 per bowl)
1 tablespoon sesame seeds, toasted
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon soy sauce
sesame oil
blue food coloring (yes, that’s right)
Thinly slice garlic and saute in oil and butter. Pour in stock, heat to boiling. Slice carrots and celery into 1/8″. Cook noodles per instructions, adding celery and carrots for the last five minutes of a gentle boil. Meanwhile, slice romaine into 1/2″ strips and tear in half (so kids can manage the “seaweed”). Quarter the cherry tomatoes and layer in the bowls with the romaine. Add one drop food coloring to each bowl.
When noodles are cooked, add the sesame seeds, lemon juice, soy sauce, and a splash of sesame oil to the soup and cook one more minute. Ladle the soup into bowls. Serve with Goldfish crackers or Oyster crackers, natch.