Asian Chicken Noodle Soup

Are you counting? This is new recipe #3 of the weekend. Like I told you, I've been feeling adventurous. :)

After a Saturday night of pizza, beer, wine, and pumpkin pie snickerdoodle bars, we knew we were going to be in the mood for something a bit healthier. Considering I spend most of Sundays in my sweats, there is something to be said about making comfort food on Sundays, too.

As someone who is a bit tired of the same old chicken noodle soup, I was happy to come across this recipe during my planning earlier this week. Take all of my favorite chicken noodle soup ingredients, and then add Asian flavors? I'm sold. As a bonus, this is incredibly easy and fast to cook up. Perfect for a weeknight lazy Sunday.

The end result was a wonderfully flavorful version of chicken noodle soup. It also had a little kick to it (thanks to the red pepper flakes), which I loved.

(Check it out. You can see my reflection in my spoon!)
I made some adjustments to the recipe based on comments in the reviews. Essentially, I just added more veggies. My version of the recipe is below. For some of the ingredients (peas, carrots, cilantro, and red pepper flakes), the amounts listed below are estimates. I didn't actually measure them, but just threw these ingredients in until I thought it looked like the appropriate amount. For the red pepper flakes, you'll want to be careful--if you add too much, it'll obviously be very spicy!

Asian Chicken Noodle Soup
(Source: Adapted from Cooking Light)

Ingredients:
- 1 tbsp. vegetable oil
- 2-3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tbsp. bottled grated ginger
- 3 tbsp. bottled lemongrass (or grated lemongrass in a tube)
- 2 cups water
- 2 (14-ounce) cans fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
- 3/4 cup frozen peas
- 3/4 cup matchstick carrots
- 1 lb. chicken breast tenders, cut into bite-sized pieces
- 4-5 oz. uncooked angel hair/thin spaghetti pasta (we used whole wheat)
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro (or 1 tbsp. dried)
- 1 tbsp. fresh lime juice
- 1/2 tsp. salt (I omitted)
- 4 green onions, thinly sliced
- 1 red chile pepper, finely chopped (or red pepper flakes, to taste--I used about 1-2 tsp.)

Directions:
1. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add garlic, ginger, and lemongrass; sauté 3 minutes.

2. Add water and broth; add peas and carrots; bring everything to a boil. Add chicken and pasta; cook 5 minutes or until chicken is done.

3. Remove from heat; stir in remaining ingredients. Let stand 5 minutes.

Note: Of course, you can use fresh lemongrass if you can find it. They didn't have it at my supermarket, but they had the grated version in a tube in the produce section. Ultimately, I ended up finding a jar of it in the Asian foods section, so I picked that up instead.