Thai-Inspired Tofu ‘Chicken’ Noodle Soup {vegan}

Big news friends! My husband and I finally closed on our new place and last weekend, we made the move into the new house. I feel like we’re slightly nuts to have bought a new house after just having gone through what turned out to be a very stressful process of selling our last house and making a transcontinental move, but here we are… homeowners again!

I love owning a home, but I think all homeowners can agree that with homeownership comes responsibility that you’d sometimes rather not have. After stopping over to drop things off nearly every day last week with the heat working just fine, we arrived at the house with all of our stuff over the weekend to find the house to be 55 degrees and the heat not working properly.

Buying a new home and something breaking the day you move in… That’s adulting for ya! We spent our first night in our new home seriously bundled up and shivering. The next day I had a heating pro come over, and luckily he was able to replace the kaput part. A couple bucks later (okay, more than a couple), we’re back to a comfortable temperature in the house.

Throughout the weekend and the first night at the new house with the temps being chillier than I could appreciate, I was seriously craving soup. There’s nothing like a hot bowl of comforting soup to warm you up.

As a matter of fact, all winter long, I crave soup. Now that it’s spring but it isn’t super warm yet, I’m still craving soup. I’m a healthy soup-making machine!

That’s why when I joined the Stash Tea Recipe Challenge to create a savory recipe that features their tea, I immediately thought of soup. I wanted to make something unique, and since I’ve been into Asian noodly veggie dishes lately, I decided to do a Thai-inspired take on a vegan ‘chicken’ noodle soup.

This soup incorporates some of the classic chicken noodle soup ingredients, such as carrots, celery, and noodles, but my Thai take includes rice noodles instead of regular pasta. It also features classic Thai ingredients, including red curry paste and coconut milk. And since we do things plant-based around here, instead of chicken, the recipe uses tofu that’s sautéed until crispy in coconut oil, then tossed with soy sauce and nutritional yeast to give it some nice salty flavor.

All of these Thai flavors paired really well with Stash Tea’s lemon ginger tea. I incorporated the tea into the soup by boiling the broth, then steeping the tea bags in before moving on to cooking the soup. The tea gives the soup a hint of lemon and ginger – both of which I love to use in many of my Asian dishes for some bright flavor.

Thai-Inspired Tofu ‘Chicken’ Noodle Soup

Foodie Loves Fitness

5 from 1 vote

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Prep Time 25 mins

Cook Time 30 mins

Total Time 55 mins

Servings 4 -6

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• 8 oz rice noodles
• 8 oz extra firm tofu
• 6 cups vegetable broth
• 4 bags of Stash Tea Lemon Ginger Herbal Tea
• 14 oz unsweetened regular coconut milk
• 2 large carrots
• 2 stalks of celery
• 1 shallot
• 1 TBSP + 1 TSP coconut oil
• 1 TBSP soy sauce
• 1 TBSP nutritional yeast flakes
• 3 TBSP red curry paste
• Salt and pepper to taste optional

Instructions

 

• First, cook the tofu: Heat 1 TBSP of the coconut oil in a sauté pan over medium heat. Meanwhile, drain the water from the tofu block, and cut it lengthwise into big strips, forming 6-8 pieces. Sauté the tofu on both sides until crispy. Transfer to a bowl, and mix in the soy sauce and nutritional yeast. Set aside.
• Mince the shallot, peel and finely dice the carrot, and dice the celery stalks.
• In a large pot, heat the remaining 1 TSP coconut oil. Add in the shallots, and cook for 3 minutes or until lightly browned.
• Add in the vegetable broth and bring to a boil.
• Remove the pot from heat, and add the Stash tea bags to the broth. Steep the tea for 7-10 minutes. Remove the tea bags, squeezing each one into the pot before you toss them.
• Return the pot to the stove and bring the broth back to simmer.
• Add in the carrots, celery, rice noodles, coconut milk and red curry paste. Cook over medium heat until the rice noodles and veggies are tender.
• Meanwhile, cut the tofu into bite-sized pieces. Transfer the sautéed tofu and remaining soy sauce liquid into the soup. Stir well to combine.
• Add in salt and pepper if you choose. Serve the soup while it’s hot!

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Tell me… Have you ever cooked or baked with tea before? Who else has been eating a lot of soup?