For week #38 of my 2018 challenge to try one new whole-food plant-based (WFPB) recipe each week, I made vegetable broth bowls. Packed with nutrient-dense whole foods, these broth bowls have a “detox” kind of quality about them.

The concept is simple:

• Tender-crisp veggies of choice

• Noodle of choice

• Covered with a warm broth.

The nice thing about this dish is that you can separate the various ingredients (kind of like a salad bar… only it’s a “tender-crisp veggie bar”), allowing each family member to build their own broth bowl. If you have picky eaters, they can choose the ingredients they like.

What I like about this recipe (besides the fact that it's healthy):

• Beautiful

• Savory yet light

• Customizable

• It has a wholesome, “food as medicine” quality about it.

What I ended up using/doing:

Ingredients for the broth:

• 1 yellow onion, diced

• Half of a 16-oz package of celery hearts (about 8 stalks, I believe), diced

• About 4 medium-sized carrots diced or shredded

• 12 cups water

• “Better than Bouillon” vegetable base to taste (I used about 1 Tbsp.)

• Low-sodium soy sauce or tamari (I used about 1 Tbsp.)

• Additional salt to taste (if needed), or more “Better than Bouillon” or soy/tamari, depending on your taste preferences

Other ingredients:

• Noodle of choice. I used a “No Yolk” variety. Rice noodles would also work well.

• Veggies of choice. I used a “steamer bag” of sweet corn, a “steamer bag” of peas, broccoli florets, a can of sliced bamboo shoots (drained), a can of sliced water chestnuts (drained), and shredded red cabbage.

• Cilantro for garnish (optional)

Steps:

1. Make a vegetable broth by combining the first 7 ingredients. Bring these ingredients to a boil in a large pot, then simmer until the onions, carrots, and celery are soft.

2. Cook veggies to your liking and keep in separate containers. I warmed the peas and carrots in their microwave steamer bags, then transferred them to a dish. I cooked the broccoli in the broth until bright green, then used a slotted spoon to transfer it to a separate dish. I didn’t cook the bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, or red cabbage.

3. Cook noodles in the broth. Once the noodles are al dente in texture, use use a slotted spoon to transfer them to their own container. (Note: Keeping ingredients in their own containers, removed from the heat, prevents them from over-cooking. This gives the broth bowls a fresh taste. It also makes the bowls customizable for individual taste preferences.)

4. If you find that the noodles soaked up too much of the broth (and you don’t have much left), add some additional water, “Better than Bouillon,” and soy sauce or tamari to your broth, and warm on the stove.

5. When you are ready to eat, have each person fill their bowl with the amount of veggies and noodles they would like, cover the veggies/noodles with the hot broth, and garnish with fresh cilantro (optional).

6. Enjoy!

Note: You can enjoy leftovers by filling a bowl with cold veggies, noodles, and broth, then warm in the microwave.

This post was originally published on September 26, 2018.