I cooked: Spicy kimchi soup with prawns, tofu and glass noodles

The recent spate of rainy days has got me craving for something hot and spicy. During lunchtime one day, I ended up making a kimchi soup with prawns, tofu and glass noodles to satisfy my cravings - oooh, I loved it as the soup was spicy, sour and extremely appetizing.

Glass noodles (tang hoon - 冬粉) is one of my favorite kinds of noodles, be it in fishball soup, stir fried and now in kimchi soup. If you are unfamiliar with glass noodles, they are usually sold dry in Asian supermarkets (or any sundry shops/supermarkets/hypermarkets in Malaysia) and all you need to do is to soak it in cold water for 2-3 minutes to rehydrate and they are ready to use. It just needs to be cooked for about a minute, you do not want to overcook it or else it will become too soft and disintegrate easily. You can also use dangmyeon, a thicker type of Korean glass noodles made from sweet potato starch. I like that the glass noodles soak up all the lovely flavours of the kimchi soup.

For this dish, try to use matured kimchi as you would in kimchi jjigae as it has a more pronounced flavour and gives the soup more depth. Tofu cubes and kimchi always go hand-in-hand and I also love to add some big, juicy prawns for a complete meal.

Love the colours

I like using glass noodles as it soaks up all the lovely kimchi soup :) Glass noodles also have a lovely chewy texture. 

So, what have you been craving lately? Do share them with me in the comments below. :)


Kimchi soup with prawns, tofu and glass noodles
Recipe by Baby Sumo
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 18-20 minutes
Serves 2

Ingredients
160g matured kimchi (see here for recipe)
4 tbsp kimchi juice
750ml water
70g chicken, cut into small chunks
2 shallot, thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, cut into half
100g tofu, cut into cubes
45g glass noodle (tang hoon - 冬粉), soaked for 3 minutes in cold water or dangmyeon
2 cherry tomato, cut into half
2 small red chilli, whole
2 spring onion, cut into 1 inch length
Salt, to taste


1. Cut the matured kimchi into 1-inch pieces.You can use scissors, it will be less messy.

2. In a saucepan over high heat, add the kimchi, kimchi juice, chilli, shallot, garlic, chicken and water. Boil over medium heat for 15 minutes.

3. Then add glass noodles and cook for 1 minute then add tofu and cherry tomatoes and cook for a further minute. Season with salt, then add spring onion and prawns and cook for 30 seconds or until cooked.

4. Remove from heat and serve immediately. Garnish with spring onion.

See this post for step-by-step instructions on how to make kimchi.

* Btw, my apologies if I have not been leaving comments on your blogs lately as I have been busy preparing for Christmas (tree decorating and preparing mini gifts for our advent calendar for the kids)

*This recipe was featured on Asian Food Channel's FB page on 29 November 2012.