Mr. Ping’s Secret Ingredient Noodle Soup

We saw Kung Fu Panda 2 at the dollar theater some months back. It was pretty awesome. Soon after, we checked out a book from the library that had a bunch of recipes in it from the Kung Fu Panda movies. Charlie, my six-year-old, begged me to make Mr. Ping’s Secret Ingredient Noodle Soup so we did, making a couple of our own changes to the recipe, and it is now his favorite meal.

Every week the kids can choose a meal for dinner and he almost always chooses this. In fact, pretty much all our kids choose the same thing every week so we recently made a new rule: you can’t choose the same thing two weeks in a row;  they could still choose it every other week if they please. Anyway, on their night, they’re to help with some of the dinner preparations, that way they’ll learn how to make their favorite dishes and hopefully when they’re a little older, they can actually be in charge of dinner. I’m excited for that day!

This soup is basically a chicken noodle soup. Everyone in the family likes it except our oldest daughter who is almost 8. But since we make it often enough(and we always make them eat a couple of bites each time), I think one day she’ll warm up to it. It makes enough to feed our family of 6, with some leftovers. Charlie usually eats all the leftovers himself for lunch and dinner the following day.

Alright, let’s get started. Take out your medium sized stock pot, chicken, cabbage and carrots, ginger, liquid aminos(you can find this at a health food store and it’s a soy sauce substitute), green onions, pasta, and your cutting board and knife. Put your stock pot on the stove with water and bouillon or chicken broth and turn on the stove. You’ll want to bring it to a boil.

While you’re waiting for the water to boil, peel and grate your carrots. I grate them on the smallest grater side(Charlie was grating in this picture).

Chop up your green onions and cabbage and then rinse them off.

If you’re using a can of chicken, go ahead and open it and take your knife and chop the chicken up into smaller chunks. I also like to cook a couple of breasts in the crock pot on low for 6 hours or until no longer pink and nice and tender. I cook it with 1/4c water and 1/2 tsp better than bouillon, 1 tsp of garlic and 1 tsp dried onion.

Once your water is boiling, add in your veggies and chicken.

At this point, reduce your heat to medium and allow it to simmer for about 5 minutes. I like to wash some of my cooking dishes and put things away at this point. Once your five minutes is up, add in your noodles and let it cook another 5 minutes until the noodles are tender. Then go ahead and add in your liquid aminos and ginger, stir it up well and it’s ready.

THE RECIPE:

Mr. Ping’s Secret Ingredient Noodle Soup

8 c chicken broth or 8c water with 2 1/2 TBS better than bouillon

1 c shredded cabbage

1c grated carrots

4 whole green onions, chopped

1-2 large cooked chicken breast, shredded or  2 cans cooked chicken

12 oz Vermicelli pasta (we also like to use the thin chopped spaghetti; sometimes we’ll do half and half)

2 Tbsp liquid aminos (soy sauce works too)

1/2 tsp ground ginger

Heat the broth in a medium sized stock pot until it begins to boil. Add the cabbage and carrots, green onions and chicken. Reduce heat to medium and simmer for five minutes. Add the noodles and cook until the noodles are tender, approximately 5 minutes. Add the liquid aminos and ginger. Stir well. Simmer for one minute. Carefully divide the soup; it will be very hot.