A Meatless Sunday Lunch

Between a hearty breakfast (bagels, smoked salmon spread, scrambled eggs, fruits...and of course, yummy hot chocolate and coffee drinks), and a big dinner (Sunday dinners have to be big, since we need lots of leftovers for Monday), lunch becomes an awkward subject...unless it's a light meatless one.

I said meatless, not flavorless, didn't I?

Needn't we be reminded, it also has to be simple!

Nothing beats this combo...Szechuan Noodle Soup, and Japanese Salad

Ingredients:

• 1 head Romaine lettuce heart, washed and spin dried/pat dried with paper towel

• 4~5 cherry tomatoes

• Optional: 1 strawberry, thinly sliced

• Optional: 1 stalk scallion, finely chopped

• Optional: 1/2 clove garlic, minced

Seasonings:

• 2~3 tablespoons light soy sauce (for a gluten free recipe, replace this with 1 tea

spoon salt)...adjust the amount of soy

sauce or salt to taste

• ½ ~ 1 teaspoon dark rice vinegar...adjust to taste

• 1 teaspoon sesame oil

• Optional: Pinch of white pepper powder

• Optional: Pinch of cayenne pepper powder

• Optional: Pinch of paprika powder

• Salad dressing: we love the Japanese Miso Dressing! There will be a recipe published soon, but for the time being, let’s use a stored bought brand “Red Shell”.

Steps:

To make the noodle soup,

1. Boil a big pot of water.

2. Prepare 1 large sized soup bowl - the type you often see in Ramen Shops, add all seasonings (except the salad dressing, obviously!), sliced strawberry, scallion and garlic (if desired).

3. When the water is boiling, simply ladle 1½ cups of hot water into the soup bowl, and our soup is ready!

4. Into the pot of boiling water, put half of the lettuce heart, let it cook for about 1 minute only (don’t overcook!), immediately take it out and set it aside.

5. Now into the boiling water put dry noodles and cook according to instructions on the package. We used the “WU-MU” dry noodles (thin) from a Chinese grocery store. But any thin pasta noodles such as angel hair or capellini should also do.

6. When noodles are cooked, transfer them to the soup bowl with chopsticks or tongs, top with the cooked lettuce, and the noodle soup is complete!

To make the salad, coarsely chop the remaining half of lettuce, add tomatoes, drizzle your favorite salad dressing on top.

And let us eat!