Eat Your Noodles Sriracha Shrimp Soup

Today is National Eat Your Noodles Day, which should never be confused with National Noodle Day. One day is set aside to celebrate all things Noodle, the other is all about eating those noodles. You would think that these would be one and the same as you cannot eat noodles without first preparing them.

Dried noodles are considered by some to be a form of unleavened bread. Personally, I find that a bit of a stretch. While noodles are found in nearly every type of cuisine, the oldest bowl of noodles were fond in China, dating back over 4,000 years. Guess they were waiting for Eat Your Noodles Day to be declared. In China nearly 40% of the flour produced is used in the making of noodles. Yet more and more we are seeing a break from the traditional flour noodle. Rice noodles are gaining popularity, as are noodles made from Zucchini. There are even recipes for Spaghetti that contain no noodle at all but rather shredded Spaghetti Squash – cleaver.

In honor of National Eat Your Noodles Day, I thought it would be fun to make a noodle soup that we can eat with chopsticks, then slurp down any remaining broth. Messy, but fun with a kick only sriracha can impart. Enjoy!

Sriracha Shrimp Noodle Soup
8 oz medium Shrimp
4 cups Vegetable Broth
1 Shallot, sliced
6 Brown Mushrooms
3 Green Onions
1 Lime
1 teaspoons Sesame Oil
4 oz Ramen Noodles
1/2 teaspoon Soy Sauce
2 tablespoons Sriracha Sauce
Sesame Seeds as desired
Red Pepper Flakes to Taste

Clean, and devein shrimp. Peel and tails, set cleaned shrimp aside in the refrigerator until ready to use.

Place outer shell and tails in a saucepot. Add vegetable broth, bring to a low boil. Lower heat, simmer for 20 minutes. Strain broth to remove shells and tails. Set strained broth aside.

While the vegetable broth is transformed into a shrimp broth, peel and thinly slice the shallot; set aside. Clean mushrooms, slice and set aside. Cut lime in half, cut half into wedges, juice remaining lime and set juice aside. Slice green onions, set aside.

In a medium soup pot over medium-high heat, warm sesame oil. Sauté shallots and mushrooms until golden and tender. With a slotted spoon, remove mushrooms and as much of the shallots as possible from the pot.

Add vegetable-shrimp broth to the pot. Coo Ramen noodles as directed on the noodle package.

During the last minute of cooking, add soy sauce, sriracha sauce and the cleaned shrimp to the pot. Stir in half of the lime juice. Taste, add more juice and seasonings as desired.

Use tongs to divide noodles between 2 soup bowls. Top each serving equally with the mushrooms.

Pour broth with shrimp equally over the bowls of noodles. Top with lime wedges, green onions and sesame seeds as desired.

Serve hot and enjoy.