Speedy Miso Spinach Mushroom Ramen

So, anybody else get in eating ruts?  I’m sure you do, and every couple of months I get bored with the meals I’m preparing, especially in the winter when there’s not much fresh coming in and I just sort of panic every time I go to the grocery store because I don’t know where the food came from, how it was handled and treated, yadda, yadda, yadda.

I subscribe to a blog called “Vanilla and Bean” and she has some interesting recipes on there occasionally.  Recently there was a post for this noodle dish that looked interesting for a bowl full of comfort food during this last leg of winter.  The high tunnel is about finished but there is a little spinach hanging on and I was able to glean a bag of that, and a couple of days ago a walk through the mushroom corner yielded about 8 nike shiitake mushrooms, so that’s why the recipe caught my eye.

Ever buy stuff at the store thinking “hmmm that looks interesting”, get it home and can’t figure out what to do with it?  Well, miso was hanging out in my fridge just screaming “use me, use me” every time I opened the door.

This was it…..I used it!!

And it was good.

Here’s the recipe…… from Vanilla and Bean

A fast and hearty weeknight dinner. Speedy Miso Spinach Mushroom Ramen is packed with ginger, garlic, shiitake mushrooms and oodles of soba noodles! Vegan + Optionally GF

 Total Time 30 minutes

 Servings 6 Servings

 Author Traci York | Vanilla And Bean

Ingredients

• 2 Tbs Coconut Oil unrefined, virgin, cold pressed
• 12 oz (340g) Shiitake Mushrooms stems removed, sliced thin
• 1 Tbs Grated Ginger I use a microplane
• 1 Tbs Grated Garlic I use a microplane
• 4 Green Onions sliced thin, whites and green seperated
• 4 C (940g) Vegetable Broth
• 3 C (675g) Water
• 2 Tbs White Miso
• 2 Bundles (152g) Soba Noodles
• 5 C (95g) Baby Spinach
• Tamari, to taste

Serve With:

• Sesame seeds, Sriracha, fresh herbs such as basil or cilantro, tamari and more green onion tops

Instructions

1. In a Dutch oven (non stick is very helpful here), heat oil until shimmering. Turn the heat down to medium low to low and add the mushrooms, ginger, garlic, and white parts of the onions. While the pot will be crowded, allow the bottom layer of mushrooms to cook for a few minutes before stirring. This will help the mushrooms sear a bit. Stir occassionally for about 6 minutes. You’ll notice the garlic and ginger stick to the bottom of the pot (but watch the heat because you don’t want the garlic and ginger to burn). Just scrape the garlic and ginger when you stir the mushrooms. When the broth is added, the pan will deglaze and those bits will add delicious flavor! Add the broth, water and miso and bring to a boil, mashing the miso to break it up. Once boiling add the noodles, turn down to medium and simmer for five minutes or until the noodles are tender. Taste for seasoning adjustment and add Tamari if a more salty taste is desired.

2. Ladle into soup bowls, top with a handful of spinach and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Serve immediately with extra spinach, sesame seeds, sriracha, herbs, tamari and onion greens.

3. Store leftovers in a lidded container, in the refrigerator, for up to three days.

   Of course I never have all the ingredients, so instead of green onions I used regular onions and I buy organic ginger when I’m at Earth Fare in Knoxville and freeze it in 1″ sections.  That way I can take it out of the freezer and use it in recipes as needed.  I also used chicken stock because I have homemade chicken stock in the freezer.  I put a generous handful of spinach leaves in the bowl and poured the noodle mixture over it.

   I’m glad there’s leftovers…….

Growing mushrooms

Last year I decided to try my hand at growing  mushrooms.  I purchased 500 plugs of Shiitake spawn and 500 of Maitake as well.   It takes about a year for them to start producing, and although a few were harvested last summer, the wait is still on to start harvesting for market…….

Wanting to add to the mushroom corner in the woods, in January I went to the mushroom spawn store and bought…..get this……4500 plugs!  There’s a reason for my madness…..one bag of 500 plugs costs $29 BUT if you buy 3, they only cost $20 so that’s like a 30% discount.

Well, I wanted more than 1500 so I bought 6 bags plus a bag of Reishi mushroom spawn.

The logs have to be cut while the leaves are off the trees, and before the sap starts to rise.  My boyfriend volunteered to cut logs for me–when he asked how many I needed and we calculated approximately 14 logs per bag ………

Then the fun began.  I drilled and hammered and waxed until my arms ached.  I spoke at a local Garden Club a couple of weeks ago and the subject was “A trip to the farm”.  I told of my mushroom saga and by word of mouth, a friend of a friend came out the next weekend and helped plug a bag with me–yay for friends of friends who are now friends!  The plugging continued last week.

Then my friend that helped me build the house said she’d come out to help–we knocked out the last bag-and-a-half so now they are done!

Let me see, 5500 plugs divided by 14 logs per 500 plugs, that would be about 154 logs, more or less.   It doesn’t look like that much once they’re stacked in their spot.  The green cover on the ground is a discarded pool cover from my parents’ house–works perfect!

Now, we wait…… (jeopardy music starts here)

Surprise, surprise, surprise! (photos added back 7/2/17)

Being a child of the 50/60’s and living in the South, I watched Gomer Pyle–that was one of his sayings, if you’re not familiar with the show or you’ve not thought about that in a while……

That’s what I got this afternoon when I was prowling around the farm checking out the new baby chicks, burning brush, and peering in at the Shiitake and Mitake mushrooms that are stashed in a corner of the farm.

One of the logs had sprouted!

Mmmmm…..that’s what’s for supper 🙂