Vegetarian Penicillin

Yesterday I was looking at some other food blogs, and I found a recipe that looked really good. It's on the blog Beans and Greens: The Vegan in Park City. The recipe was for a vegan chicken noodle soup. It looked fabulous, so my daughter and I decided to make a version of it this evening. It was fan-freaking-tastic! We're calling it "vegetarian penicillin." I changed quite a few things about the recipe. The author of Beans and Greens has two teaspoons of fresh ginger in her version. Well, I'll try anything once, but ginger in this soup just didn't sound good to me, so I only put in 1/2 teaspoon. I think that the soup would be even better without the ginger, but it is so incredibly healthy and healing that it's staying in. She also said that the original recipe called for dill, but she didn't think that sounded good. I thought it sounded great, so I added it! I changed some other things, too. Here is her version: Not chick'n noodle soup. Kudos to her for posting a great recipe! Here is my version:
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 celery stalks, sliced
20 baby cut carrots, chopped
8 cloves garlic, sliced
1/2 tsp fresh ginger, minced
1 small yellow onion, diced
1 tsp dried thyme, crushed
1/2 tsp dried dill
1 tsp dried oregano
9 cups water
3 tbsp meatless chicken broth powder
1 tablespoon Bragg Liquid Aminos
2 tsp tomato paste
1 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp paprika
1 tsp tumeric
pinch of cayenne
3 pinches of shredded, dried kelp, crushed
4 oz flat rice noodles (not the super wide ones)
15 oz. "cotton" tofu (drained, cut small, cooked in olive oil and a little Bragg until browned and chewy)

In a large stockpot, saute carrots, celery, onion, garlic and ginger for about five minutes (add a couple of tablespoons of water to keep them from sticking). Add remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for about 30 minutes until the vegetables are tender. Add noodles tofu and cook for another 10 minutes until noodles are soft. Serve and enjoy!

I also made some gluten free blueberry muffins that everyone enjoyed. It's a recipe that I got in a gluten free cooking class. I would like to play with it some and make it my own, but it's pretty good. I made 18 muffins and they all got eaten! They dont look like much, but that's okay.