America’s Test Kitchen:30-Minute Suppers is a special issue with 64 tear-out recipe cards featuring quick dinners. Since I like fast dinners and ATK never steers me wrong, I jumped on it. Tonight I tried the Asian Noodle Soup, a flavorful beef soup reminiscent of Vietnamese pho (so the recipe says). It was a big hit with Adam, and it definitely puts me on the path to learning new cuisines, but I need to get used to fish sauce. The noodles and the beef were delicious, but spoonfuls of the broth were just slightly too overpowering for me. Adam thought it was perfect, so I think it’s just a flavor I need to get used to. I can’t deny that it was easy and delicious (minus a slight aftertaste in the broth).
Asian Noodle Soup
Serves: 4
8 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1 (2″) piece of ginger, halved lengthwise and smashed
3 (2.5″) strips of lime zest and 1 tablespoon juice from lime
1/2 tsp Chinese five-spice powder
8 ounces thick rice noodles (couldn’t find thick ones, just used linguine)
1 lb. sirloin steak tips, sliced thin (I bought a sirloin steak and sliced it into strips myself)
3 tablespoons fish sauce
1 tsp chili-garlic sauce (found this in the Asian food aisle at Whole Foods)
4 scallions, sliced thin
1/4 cup fresh cilantro leaves
Bring broth, ginger, lime zest, and five-spice powder to boil in a large Dutch oven.
Add noodles and cook until nearly tender, about 5 minutes. Stir in beef and simmer until cooked through and noodles are completely tender, 2 minutes. **I followed the prep directions on my linguine and just added the beef 2 minutes before the end of cooking time.
Off heat, stire in fish sauce, chili-garlic sauce, and lime juice.
Remove ginger and lime zest with slotted spoon. **I only had key limes, so I grated the zest and left it in.
Stir in scallions and cilantro. Serve.
