This recipe is slightly Asian-inspired, but if you don’t have udon noodles, any kind of egg or buckwheat noodle will work nicely. The fish sauce can be replaced with more soy sauce – or you can choose to leave it out entirely. And if you don’t have leftover pork from a slow-cooked roast as I did, you can substitute cooked chicken, shrimp, or make it more veggie-based by adding shredded cabbage and peas. I like that I used up a few more carrots, onions, and garlic from last year’s garden.
Pork Noodle Soup
1 tablespoon butter
1 small onion or 2 shallots, peeled, diced
2 cloves garlic, peeled, minced
1 tablespoon fish sauce
4 cups chicken stock (you can substitute beef or vegetable)
1/2 cup shredded pork
1 cup udon noodles, uncooked
2 teaspoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
Melt butter over medium-low heat in a large saucepan. Add carrots, onion and garlic, and cook, stirring often, until onion and garlic are soft.
Add fish sauce, chicken stock, pork and udon noodles and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium low and simmer until noodles and carrots are cooked, 7 to 10 minutes.
Add soy sauce and fresh parsley just before ladling into bowls. Yield 4 servings.
One version of Pork Noodle Soup; yours will look slightly different. Photo: Fotolia/postsmth
