Sopa De Fideo (Mexican Noodle Soup), Of Course It's Vegan
Sopa de Fideo is one of those dishes that you won't find in most Mexican restaurants. It's a quick and easy, yet delicious warm umami flavored explosion of a soup. But Mexico shouldn't take all the credit. It's thought to have its origins in Spain as this soup can also be found in Cavite, a small province in the Philippines.
The ingredients are simple; tomatoes, onion, garlic, cilantro, fideo and stock.
Fideo: If you are unfamiliar with fideo know that it can be substituted for any other pasta, but the ones that looks most like fideo are vermicelli and angel hair. The pasta in this recipe will need to be toasted so if you want to get an even toast all throughout, I suggest you stick with shapes that can get an even amount of contact time with the hot pot. I've made this with shells before and it worked but some part of my shells got more contact time than other parts and it toasted unevenly, some parts were even too brown.
Stock: If you have homemade stock available you can use that; it will be way better than store bought. I like to get mushroom stock or I simply use water. Honestly, even just water in this recipe instead of stock is AMAZING :).
Cilantro: Add it, stems and all
This recipe is vegan (unless you use animal based stock), so you know it's got a low carbon footprint! Yay! Regarding plastic use: the pasta comes in plastic bags and the stock comes in a multi layer carton which usually contains paper, cardboard, different types of plastic and sometimes aluminum, if you can make your own or simply use water, you can avoiding this hot mess.
This recipe makes an 8 quart pot.
Ingredients
- 2.5 pounds or 8 large Roma tomato
- 2.1 liter or 9 cups of water (divided)
- 946 millilitre or 1 quart mushroom broth or veggie broth
- 20 grams or 2 tablespoons, or around 1/6 of a bundle of cilantro
- 2 garlic cloves
- 177 g onion or 1/2 a large onion
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 1 tablespoon high temperature oil
Instructions
1. Blend the Roma tomatoes, garlic, onion, cilantro and 1 tablespoon of salt with 235 ml or 1 cup water. Put to the side.
2. Put an 8 quart pot on medium low heat and add a tablespoon of high temperature oil, like vegetable oil. Once pot and oil are hot, toast both bags of fideo for about 5 minutes or until blistered and a light golden color. Move the fideo around the pot the entire time, don't stop stirring.
3. Once fideo is toasted, add the tomato sauce to the pot and stir until fideo and sauce are combined.
4. Turn the heat to medium and let the sauce come to a boil.
5. Once sauce is boiling add the broth plus another 940 millilitres or 4 cups of water and bring to a boil again.
6. Taste for salt and add more if desired.
7. Serve hot with a small lime wedge and maybe some hot sauce.
8. If you have leftovers and find that the soup absorbed the rest of the liquid, just add more broth or water to it before reheating.
Thanks for stopping by!
Karla