As I may have mentioned, I was an incredibly picky eater as a kid. I never even tasted a hamburger until I was twelve because I didn’t like the look of them. When my dad would take us to White Spot, I’d order a hot dog on a hamburger bun (I still enjoy veggie dogs this way!). But I was an easygoing kid and I hated to disappoint my mum, so I’d always try to eat what she made even if I hated it…and there were SO many things I hated: Spanish rice, spaghetti, chili con carne, ham, mashed potatoes, and every kind of soup except one: Lipton’s Chicken Noodle Soup!

Now, I haven’t tasted that soup for close to fifty years, but I still remember those noodles and that salty, salty broth. I hadn’t thought about that soup for decades until I was watching a Youtube video of French chef, Jacques Pépin talking to his daughter about her favourite recipes from her grandmother’s kitchen. She mentioned soupe a la vermicelle, which is apparently chicken stock with vermicelli noodles, which got me thinking about how much I loved that Lipton’s chicken noodle soup of my childhood. Now, I have no doubt Madame Pépin made chicken stock from scratch…and likely made her vermicelli noodles from scratch as well, but I can’t exactly do that since I don’t eat chicken, but I do have some vegan chick’n broth powder from The Bulk Barn. And I do have millet-and-brown-rice ramen noodles and a batch of recently made chickwheat, so I thought I’d give my old favourite a vegan shot!

Vegan Chick’n Noodle Soup

3 ounces shredded chickwheat

3 cups water

4 tsps vegan chick’n broth powder or Better Than Bouillon No Chicken Broth Base

1 celery stalk very thinly sliced

1 – 2 bundles of millet-and-brown-rice ramen noodles

Bring three cups of water to a boil, add chick’n broth powder/base and stir until dissolved. Add noodles–if you like it super noodley, add two bunches; if not, add only one. After one minute, use tongs to break up noodles and continue boiling for another four minutes. Add celery and chickwheat in the last minute. And there you go: a great big bowl of comfort food!

IT IS SO FREAKIN’ GOOD!!

And the song of the day is Andrew Bird’s version of the Handsome Family’s “Cathedral in the Dell” because lately we’ve been hiking through an area of the the woods that reminds me of a cathedral of trees. Much to James’ embarrassment, I belt out the first few bars of this song every time we enter that area of the woods.