Shirataki Spicy Beef Soup

Find the original recipe here: http://www.thedailymeal.com/recipes/shirataki-spicy-beef-soup

I just came back from a trip to New Orleans where I ate things like this:

 

Strawberry Salad

 

Meat Trio

 Bread Pudding Souffle

These dishes where served at the Commander's Palace. While the strawberry salad wasn't great, the other two dishes were amazing! Veal, bone marrow  and some other meat, and bread pudding souffle with a whiskey sauce.

Now I am trying to eat really healthy. This dish packs a lot of filling vegetables with a delicious broth. I doubled the recipe, but I will give the directions with the recipe's original size. Remember that making soup is not baking. Take all measurements lightly.

1. First start boiling your 4 cups of beef broth. Reserve about 1/3 of a cup from the 4 cups of broth for later.  I used reduced sodium beef broth from a carton. You can always add salt, but you cannot take it away. The broth will probably start boiling before you are done preparing the rest of the components, so keep an eye on it and turn the heat down if necessary.

2. Next you need to prepare the marinade for the beef. Peel part of a ginger with the back of a spoon.

Don't be afraid to try, if you've never peeled a ginger before. Just scrape the spoon against the skin. Mince about 2 teaspoons worth. I would include the extra ginger you might of chopped. It won't hurt. I also chopped some garlic, but lets face it... garlic is good. Scrape the ginger (and garlic) bits into your marinating container. Pour in your 1 tablespoon of soy sauce. I also mixed in some mirin and rice wine vinegar to give the sirloin another dimension. Mix the bits and the sauce together in the container. 

3. Chop your 8 ounces beef up into 1 inch strips. Don't feel bad about putting in a extra beef. I bought sirloin tip sandwich steak which was very lean and easy to cut since it was already sliced thin. Place the beef in the marinating container and mix the marinade with the steak.

4. Shred/slice your veggis which include 2 large carrots, 1/2 a head of Napa cabbage, and 6 ounces of Shiitake mushrooms with their stems removed. I personally don't like mushrooms, so I used zucchini instead. I also had green cabbage already, so I used that instead of Napa cabbage. If you can get pre-shreded carrots, I would highly recommend using that instead of having to peel and shred whole carrots.  Place all the vegetables in one bowl so you can quickly place it into the broth when it is time.

5. Wash your bean sprouts

6. Mix in the rest of the seasoning (the 1 teaspoon of Sriracha and 1/2 a teaspoon of sesame oil) in with the reserve beef broth. It is much easier to mix the seasoning in when it is in a smaller bowl without all the other solid ingredients. Go ahead and increase the Sriracha if you want more of a kick.

I had Sriracha available, but I opted to use Gochujang paste. It is a delicious Korean hot pepper paste that is the base for many Korean dishes like the sauce that comes with Bibimbap.

7. The recipe calls for 1 package of Shirataki fettuccine noodles. These practically calorie free noodles are available at your local super market and can be usually found near the tofu. Shirataki noodles are made from the konjac yam. They are weird and slimy, but if they are prepared correctly, they are a great substitute for noodles/pasta. The noodles are packed in liquid. Drain the noodles over a strainer in the sink. The liquid will smell kind of bad. This is normal. Rinse the noodles for a while with warm water. You also might want to cut the noodles up since they usually come in very long strands.

8. Cook the pasta on a pan without oil for about 5 minutes until most of the rinsing water evaporates and the noodles start squeaking when moved.

9. By now your broth should hopefully be boiling. Pour the beef and the marinade into the broth for about 2 minutes.

10. Pour the veggis (not including the sprouts) into the pot and cook for another 2 minutes.

11. Pour the noodles, the seasoning broth mix, and sprouts into the pot. Cook for another 2 minutes.

12. Turn the burner off and taste the broth. Add salt and pepper as appropriate.

I  really liked how this dish turned out. I probably would have added a little more beef. Please tell me how your version tasted.