Stone Soup Noodles

Do you know the old story of stone soup?  It's a folktale in which travelers arrive in a village with nothing but an empty cooking pot, and the villagers do not want to share any bits of their food stores with which to make dinner.  So the travelers fill the pot with water, add a large stone, and place it over a fire to cook.  The villagers are curious what they're doing, and the travelers answer that they are making stone soup, but it could be even better with a few extra vegetables.  So the one villager gives them a few carrots, another villager thinks he could part with a few seasonings, another villager thinks "I don't need this one onion," and eventually, an amazing soup is born.

This is how I felt the other night making this noodle dish.  I didn't have the element of cooperation that the stone soup story entails, but I did have the idea of adding anything available and coming out with something amazing, so I am calling these my stone soup noodles.  I love what you can create by mixing and matching and seeing what comes together!

Stone Soup Noodles

1 T olive oil
2 T minced garlic
2 C snap peas
1/2 C black beans
1 pound tofu


3 T hoisin sauce
1/2 C onion dip (Tofutti sour cream plus package of onion soup mix - Yum!)
1 t chili oil
juice of 1/2 lemon
2 T rice vinegar
1/2 C nutritional yeast
1/2 C water

1/3 pound rice noodles, cooked

2 C spinach

1/2 C chopped olives

1. Heat olive oil in large saute pan.  When hot, add garlic and brown for 1 minute.  Add snap peas, and saute for a few minutes to allow to begin to soften.

2. Add beans and tofu and stir.  Then add all other sauce ingredients, from hoisin sauce through water, and mix well.  

3. Add rice noodles and mix well again.

4. Heat dish through and allow sauce ingredients to meld. 2-3 minutes before you are ready to serve, add spinach and olives and allow spinach to wilt.  

Serve and enjoy!

Serves 3-4.