Gluten Free Wednesday: Vegan Chicken Noodle Soup

Happy Gluten Free Wednesday!

Whenever I have to cook family meal for my department, or just L and myself, as there are only two of us on Wednesdays, I am always looking for something fun and different to make.  L is gluten free and is always talking about how when she cooks for herself, she eats a lot of rice with veggies, generally served with a peanut sauce.  Which is damn delicious, but I definitely want to switch things up and not cook that for her and myself.  Sometimes I will feel really inspired like today, and others I will just want to bring in some plantains and make something super simple. 

Today I was really into it and it was my goal to make a vegan gluten free chicken noodle soup, which is interesting and different enough, but I also wanted to make the noodles homemade.  I used to make vegan noodles at home all the time, but certainly not gluten free.  I attempted to make them once when I was in culinary school, and they were absolutely disgusting and did not work.  I found a recipe on a gluten free blog and since I was nervous about just making one batch, I did a pre-batch to see if the recipe would work.  With a few modifications, it worked and was pretty good.  In this recipe the noodles worked very well, but when I tried them on my own, I definitely think they were too chewy - I'm sure from too much xanthan gum, but they roll out beautifully and hold together very well.  I am going to play around with the recipe some more because the author said it would work well for ravioli and tortellini - can you imagine vegan gluten free ravioli or tortellini???   That is going to be one of my goals for an upcoming family meal cooking session.

"Chicken" Noodle Soup Ready to go Home for Dinner!

"Chicken" Noodle Soup:

Serves 6-10 (makes a lot!)

3 prepared gluten free pepper steak patties, thawed (May Wah in Manhattan has a great selection!)

Noodles:
1 cup millet flour
1 cup tapioca starch
1 tablespoons xanthan gum
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 cup flax eggs
3 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup filtered water

Soup:
3 large carrots, peeled and medium diced, about 2 1/2 - 3 cups
4 stalks celery, sliced into thirds (the long way), and medium diced
1 large onion, medium diced, about 1 1/2 cups
12 cups filtered water
2 1/2 - 3 tablespoons Imagine no-chicken boullion
1 teaspoon sea salt, or to taste
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/8 teaspoon cayenne, optional but delicious

1.  Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. 
2.  To prepare the pasta, combine the millet flour, tapioca starch, xanthan gum and sea salt in a medium bowl.  Add the flax eggs, olive oil and filtered water and mix with a spatula until a nice dough forms. 
3.  Liberally flour your surface with millet flour.  Place the dough in the center of the the flour, sprinkle with additional flour and carefully roll out to desired thickness and shape with a rolling pin, adding more flour as needed to prevent the dough from sticking. 
4.  To make noodles, use a sharp paring knife to cut the dough into long, thin strips.  Place individually into the boiling water, stirring immediately so that the noodles do not stick to one another.  Cook the noodles in two batches.  These only take 1-2 minutes to cook - so keep an eye on them.
5.  Once the noodles are cooked, place them on a baking tray that has been drizzled in oil.  Drizzle the noodles with a small amount of oil while preparing the soup so they do not become impossible to take apart. 
6.  Begin making the soup:  In a large stockpot, add the olive oil and allow it to become hot.  Once it is hot, add the diced onion, celery and carrots.  Cook, periodically stirring, for about 3 minutes, or until the vegetables are slightly cooked.  Add the filtered water, boullion, salt, black pepper and cayenne pepper and allow soup to come to a boil.  Once soup boils, lower heat to a simmer.
7.  Simmer soup until vegetables are just tender (I like my veggies in my soup to have a little bit of a bite). 
8.  While the soup is simmering, prepare the "chicken" part of the recipe.  In a medium saute pan, add one tablespoon of oil and allow it to become hot.  Once the oil is hot, add the pepper steak patties and cook for about 1 minute on each side, or until lightly golden.  Remove from the pan and blot with paper towels.  Once cool enough to handle, chop into bite sized pieces. 
9.  To the pot of simmering veggies and stock, add the cooked noodles and the prepared "chicken".  Stir to combine and season to taste. 
10.  Serve a nice hearty amount in a bowl and savor the aroma.  Sigh in bliss and devour!

Enjoy!

-K