Healthy Meal: Homemade Veggie Ramen Noodle Soup

This morning, our Athleta running group was teed up for our first double digit run: 10 miles! The More Half Marathon is just 3 weeks away, and everyone is doing an awesome job with the training plan. Only two long runs left!

Last night I went to Katie’s housewarming party and had a great time, but still made it to bed 11:30pm. 8.5 hours of sleep = bliss! Laura stayed at my apartment so that she’d be closer to the start of the run, and it was fun to have a mini-slumber party (chocolate chip cookies before we went to bed? Yes, indeed!). But when I woke up this morning, I just wasn’t feeling it.

However, that’s the nice thing about training plans and running groups – whether you want to or not, you have to get out there, and once you’re out there, you might have a surprisingly nice time! Today’s group was a bit smaller than usual (probably because I warned everyone about the impending rain and suggested that people might want to do their run on Saturday instead), but the rain held off and we had a peaceful and “loopy” run – covering the lower loop, then the upper loop (and Harlem Hills), and with a reservoir loop and a Great Lawn loop thrown in for good measure. I arrived back at the store feeling great – my only regret was not having some extra sweats to throw on for what turned out to be a cold walk home.

When I did get home, I desperately wanted something hot… and also found that my body was craving salt (not surprising after sweating for nearly two hours). All I could think about was something that would be tasty and fit the bill of both salty and hot, but would also be pretty terrible for me: ramen soup. As a kid, my mom let me get ramen soup as a treat. I loved the saltiness of it, I loved that I could make it by myself, and something about it just seemed snacky and fun.

But after doing my body good with such a nice long run, I didn’t want to then have crap like ramen. So I decided to make my own! After checking out a bunch of different recipes on the web, I came up with my own adaptation that fit the bill. (No picture for mine, but I think we all know what ramen soup looks like!) I stuffed mine with tons of extra veggies for fiber and substance, and it really hit the spot.

1. Spray a soup pot with olive oil (hooray for my Misto!) and heat it up.
2. Add 1/4 large white onion (diced), 1 carrot (peeled and diced), and 2 stalks celery (diced). Saute until softened and starting to brown.
3. Add about 2 cups of water (so the veggies don’t scorch and to form the base of your broth), and also add 1/2 cup frozen green beans, 1/4 cup frozen corn, and 1/2 cup snow peas. Stir and bring to a boil.
4. Lower the heat so the soup is just below boiling, and then add a sheet of kombu, making sure it’s completely submerged. Simmer for 10 minutes.
5. In a second pot, heat 1 tsp sesame oil. Add 2 cloves of crushed garlic and 1/2 tsp of ground ginger. Heat for about 2 minutes, until the garlic is popping.
6. Add 1 bag of tofu shirataki noodles (drained) to the pot with the sesame oil and spices. Stir to combine, and heat for another minute or so.
7. Turn the heat off on the veggie pot, remove the kombu sheet, and add 2 tbsp reduced sodium soy sauce. Stir thoroughly, then add the noodles from the other pot. Stir again and adjust seasonings (I added ground garlic and a bit more ginger – I like my soup extra pungent). Let cool, and serve!

This soup totally filled me up, warmed me up, and replenished my salt stores and water balance (though it is definitely high in sodium – I think even worse than the packaged kind). Bonus: you get a HUMONGOUS bowl of soup that is probably big enough for two people, but the entire thing is only 240 calories! Tons of fiber and good-for-you veggies, but in a seemingly indulgent package. Awesome. The only thing that would make it better is the addition of some protein (shrimp? Tofu?), but I was lazy and hungry and ate it as-is 🙂