Thukpa

Another week, another new food to make. I’ve cut down on sugar for lent which is a whole…thing, so I’ve had to put my long list of sweet bakes to try to one side for a while, but that means I can dive into my equally long list of new dishes to try. Today’s lucky winner was the Nepalese spicy soup, thukpa, something I’ve eaten thukpa before and loved, but I hadn’t made it at home. I’d actually intended on making momos, delicious Tibetan dumplings and settled on thukpa to go with them at the last minute. As it turned out, my husband took over momo duties and I concentrated on this delicious spicy broth.

Although I ate thukpa in a Tibetan restaurant, it is popular in Nepal and northern India too. I can understand the need for a warming, spicy soup so close to the Himalayas! Normally it is served with meat, but I managed to find a couple of vegetarian recipes floating around and settled on this one from Archana’s Kitchen as it included a recipe for making the noodles too – in for a penny in for a pound!

The noodles were very easy to whip up, simply combining eggs and flour as if you were making pasta, which I guess you kind of are. I then rolled it really thin, cut it with the pizza roller a bit haphazardly and gently stretched each one out as I put it into the amazing smelling broth. By this point I’d cooked onions, tomatoes, and the garam masala and cumin to make a fragrant masala, and then added the water and veg to bring it all together.

Whilst the noodles were cooking in the soup, the momo/gyoza hybrid (we followed Meera Sodha’s recipe) were busy steaming in the pan. The whole thing smelled so good I’m amazed we didn’t have our neighbours knocking at the door asking for some.

I enjoyed this so much, it’s definitely going to enter my regular soup rotation in the future. The noodles were a little thicker than I’d liked but actually tasted a lot better than I’d imagined. All in all, a job well done!