We Haight Cookbooks: Karina makes "Chicken" "Noodle" Soup...

The cold weather has arrived in San Francisco and since the heat doesn't seem to work in my apartment, I decided to warm-up in the good-old Campbell's soup commercial kind of way. Even though I don't eat meat anymore and didn't want something heavy like pasta, I decided to make a version on the most comforting soup I could possibly think of from my childhood: Chicken Noodle Soup. Solution- simply use spaghetti squash and tempeh.

First I simmered organic onions, garlic, dried porcini mushrooms, peas, quinoa, sage and the stems and leafs of beets in a pot of vegetable stock and water for an hour or so to really bring out the flavors. I spiced with my usual salt, pepper, cayenne, curry and paprika. I then put this stock in a blender to get a smooth consistency and added it back to the pot.

I cut a spaghetti squash in half, gutted it and put it in the oven on 400* for 30 minutes or so until it was soft and ready to fork out.

In a pan I sauteed onions and tempeh in a bit of olive oil & braggs until golden brown.

I added the spaghetti squash "noodles", onions, tempeh, organic fresh spinach, and peanuts to the stock and simmered for a long time. I spiced it as I stirred along the way, making sure my precious ingredients were being flavored as best as possible. Then I turned to any soup's best friend- a dynamite salad! First to take care of the dressing...

I scoped out what ingredients I had left. Still had some amazing fresh organic sage, peanuts, lime and tahini so they were obviously in. It would be foolish to think I would ever leave garlic and ginger out if I had them (which I always make sure to do) so I added them all in the blender and started spicing and flavoring.

All of us in the house were so blown away with how creamy and delicious this dressing was, it was hard to leave any for the salad!

Speaking of the salad..

I made a fresh salad base with all of my favorite friends from the Haight Street Co-Op. Organic mixed greens, spinach, cucumber, avocado, pomegranate seeds, carrots, and peanuts.