breakfast pho soup

Ingredients

4 cups water

1 medium carrot stalks bok choy or 1 head

2 baby bok choy

1 daikon radish, about 6 inches long

2 tsp freshly grated ginger black pepper to taste

1 tbsp tamari

1 small lime, juiced lime wedges for garnish

OPTIONAL ADDITIONS

1 large handful zucchini noodles (see page 176) or rice noodles; replace 1 cup water with 1 cup coconut milk

Boil the water in a large saucepan. Coarsely chop the vegeta- bles and add to the pan. Add freshly grated ginger and black pepper to taste and simmer, covered, for 5 minutes. If using zucchini or rice noodles, add for the last minute of cooking and cover again. Simmer until vegetables and noodles are al dente. Take off the heat and add lime juice and tamari.

To serve, ladle soup into 2 wide noodle bowls. Accompany with fresh lime wedges.

Notes

This recipe is an adaptation of a traditional southern Vietnamese breakfast. The pungency of savory, slightly spicy tastes for breakfast (instead of sweet and cool, such as we get with cold cereals) will stoke the digestive fires during a damp season, when they tend to run low. In line with Ayurvedic principles, in the warm southern region of Vietnam, breakfast pho soup has a sweet broth and is seasoned with fresh herbs, which are cooling. In the cool northern regions, the soup more often contains vinegar and chili, which are heating. This version falls on the milder side of what you might find in pho's homeland, but I make up for the mildness by adding fresh ginger.