Spicy Seafood Noodle Soup
Ingredients
- 7 cups water
- 400g fresh (200g dried) wheat noodles
- 2 lbs mussels washed and debearded, reserve 6-8 whole mussles to add into the soup later
- 1/2 onion sliced + julienned
- 1 potato sliced + julienned
- 1/2 zucchini sliced + julienned
- 2 scallion chopped, reserve 1 tbsp for garnish
- 1 long green pepper or jalapeno
- 1.5 tbsp garlic minced
Soup Seasoning
- 3 tbsp cooking oil
- 2 tbsp gochujang Korean red pepper paste
- 1 tbsp doenjang Korean soy bean paste
- 1 tbsp coarse gochugaru Korean chili pepper flakes
- 1 tbsp fine gochugaru Korean chili pepper powder
- 1 tbsp soup soy sauce adjust to taste
- 1 tbsp fish sauce adjust to taste
- 1/2 tbsp salt adjust to taste
- 1/4 tsp msg optional
Garnish
- 1/2 tbsp crushed sesame seeds optional
- crushed seaweed flakes optional
Instructions
Mussel Broth
- Wash and debeard the mussels. Soak in cold water for 20-30 minutes to remove the dirt and sand. Drain well.
- In a pot, bring 7 cups of water to boil. Place the mussels in the pot and cook until the mussels open. To prevent them from overcooking and turning rubbery, pick out the mussels as they open and transfer to a bowl until all the mussels are cooked. Strain the broth and set aside.
- Once the mussels have cooled, remove the meat from the shell and chop into chunks.
Noodle Soup
- Prep the vegetables. Julienne the onion, potato, and zucchini. Chop the scallions and long green pepper. Reserve about 2 tbsp of scallions for garnish. Mince the garlic. Set all the vegetables aside.
- In a pot or deep pan, add cooking oil over medium heat. Add the sliced scallions and stir fry for 30 seconds.
- Turn the heat to low and stir in the gochujang and doenjang in with the scallions. Mix together until combined.
- Add the coarse and fine gochugaru and quick mix together to prevent them from burning. Cook for another 30 seconds.
- Pour the mussel broth into the pot and stir until the seasoning is fully combined.
- Bring the soup to a boil, then add the potatoes and onions. Season the soup with soup soy sauce, fish sauce, salt, msg (optional).
- When the potatoes are almost cooked (about 3-5 minutes), place the noodles in a strainer and run it under cold water. This willl remove any excess starch. If you are using dried noodles, you can skip this step.
- Reduce the cooking time of the noodles by 1 minute according to the package instructions.
- When the noodles are almost done, add the garlic, zucchini, mussels meat, long green pepper and mussels in the shell. Cook for about 30-45 seconds or until the mussels have opened.
- Transfer the noodles and soup into a bowl.
- Garnish with scallions, crushed sesame seeds, and seaweed flakes.
Notes
1. Mussels cook very quickly and will turn rubbery when overcooked. To prevent that, pick out the mussels as they open and transfer to a bowl until all the mussels are cooked.
2. To crush the sesame seeds, use a mortar and pestle or place it in a Ziploc bag and crush it with a rolling pin or bottle.
3. You can substitute shelled mussels with frozen mussels. If you use frozen mussels, you can skip the first 3 steps.
2. To crush the sesame seeds, use a mortar and pestle or place it in a Ziploc bag and crush it with a rolling pin or bottle.
3. You can substitute shelled mussels with frozen mussels. If you use frozen mussels, you can skip the first 3 steps.