Cheap Eats: Every Night Soup

The Topic: The soup you can eat every single night and never get sick of with VN Managing Editor Elizabeth Castoria

The Dish: It's no secret that soup and I have sort of a thing. As someone who's forever freezing cold unless I happen to be in direct sunlight, there's nothing more satisfying than a huge bowl of piping hot soup for dinner. Bachelor Soup has long been a favorite of mine, and when I'm feeling homesick (OK, my parents live about 45 minutes away from me, but what can I say? I love them!), I bust out a vegan posole, one of my dad's signature dishes.

As trusty and tasty as these two staples are, there's a new soup in my life, and we are in love. I call it Every Night Soup, both because I eat it nearly every night, and because I'm really creative. Inspired by the ever-amazing Vietnamese pho, this totally inauthentic yet highly satisfying supper really hits the spot. The ingredients are things that I tend to always have stocked, and can easily be found for cheap. Plus, I recently discovered something amazing: frozen broccoli. Did you know that you can actually purchase broccoli and add it to meals without letting it sit in your fridge for too long and/or getting little tiny broccoli bits all over your kitchen when you chop it? True story!

Every Night Soup

Serves 2

What You Need:
6 cups water
1 tablespoon veggie bouillion
4 ounces dried rice noodles (I like the ones that are cut for Pad Thai best)
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
1 cup cubed extra-firm tofu
1 cup frozen broccoli florets
1 teaspoon Sriracha
1/2 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
1/4 cup chopped scallions 
1 heaping tablespoon miso

What You Do:

1. In a medium pot, bring water and bouillion to a boil. Add noodles, and cook for about 5 minutes until softened.
2. Add all remaining ingredients, except miso, and simmer another 2 minutes. Remove from heat and wait until soup is no longer bubbling to add miso. Serve hot!

The Final Word: No scallions? No problem. Feel like tossing in some other veggies? Go for it. This soup can be exactly the same every night, or you can mix it up to your heart's content. I've made it with and without miso, with varying amounts of hot sauce, and with tons of chopped garlic, depending on how I'm feeling and what I have on hand.

Brown Baggin' on the Cheap

The Topic: Tips for making brown-bag lunches on the cheap

The Dish: We know we have it good. The VegNews offices are located within a few blocks of four vegan restaurants, plus dozens of vegetarian and veg-friendly eateries offering up delicious plant-based fare. But what's a vegan trying to watch her budget (and her waistline) to do? Brown bag it.

Yes, it's glamorous to run out during lunch to pick up a sandwich, sushi, or burrito and not have to think about shopping, prepping, or cleaning up. But I enjoy packing lunch for myself, especially knowing that I am not spending money on food that I could make in my own kitchen (okay, not always true). Plus, restaurant food is ridden with oil, salt, and sugar, and the portion sizes send me into an afternoon coma. Here are my top five brown-bag meals that keep both my body and my bank account healthy.

1. Kale Salad

It's no secret that we're a bunch of kale lovers around here, but when a marinated kale salad costs upwards of $10 at a local vegan restaurant, I'll make my own. Buy a bunch of kale ($1.75), marinade it in an olive oil-lemon juice vinaigrette (50¢), and top with half of an avocado (75¢). Voilà—a delicious, nutritious meal for $3.

2. Bagel with Avocado, Sprouts, and Cucumbers

A toasted bagel loaded with fresh veggies makes for a hearty lunch to fuel an afternoon of editing. Buy a bagel (75¢), spread on fresh avocado (75¢), and top with sliced cucumbers (20¢) and sprouts (25¢). That bagel sandwich that costs $4 at a nearby café set you back just $1.95. Life is good.

3. Baked Potato with Toppings

If your office has a toaster oven or microwave, you can bake up a potato before lunch for a tasty midday meal. I love a baked Yukon Gold potato (50¢) topped with a slathering of vegan mayo (20¢), shredded lettuce (25¢), and chopped cherry tomatoes (40¢). Heaven for $1.35? Yes.

4. Soup

During the cold-weather months (that would be nearly all of them in San Francisco), I love to make a big pot of soup on a Sunday afternoon and then eat soup for lunch during the week. Think smoky black bean, curried sweet potato, coconut butternut squash, and African peanut. If an entire pot of soup costs $5 in ingredients to make, a bowlful amounts to just pennies. In my opinion, soup is the most underrated food on the planet. It's downright delectable, cheap, and filling.

5. Leftovers

Less ambitious and sexy than any of the above, packing leftovers from the previous night's dinner is actually a great habit to get into. Just make a little more dinner than usual, pack leftovers into a Tupperware/tiffin/lunchbox, and bam! Lunch is done. It takes a lot less time to make 25 percent more dinner than to create a new meal from scratch.

The Final Word: Whether you're new to packing your own lunch or are a seasoned brown bagger, bringing your lunch helps you save cash while keeping you healthy. My go-to meals are ideal for those who are time-starved, but I love the thought of fancy-pants bento boxes and gourmet lunch boxes. Enjoy the process, and happy eating!

Cheap Eats: Vegan Bachelor Soup

The Topic: Eating on the cheap with Managing Editor Elizabeth Castoria

The Dish: Virgil once wrote,"Fortune favors the brave," and he could not have been more right—especially when it comes to dining inexpensively (which, I'm sure, is exactly what he had in mind at the time). Should fear rob you not only of delicious meals, but also of your cold, hard cash? Heck no! Go boldly into your kitchen, like you've never gone before! (Really, if anyone comes to mind when you think of Virgil, it's Shatner.)

I was richly rewarded by inquiring once about what my friend Joelle was eating. Joelle is something of a culinary genius, and is the embodiment of fearlessness in the kitchen. She'll put spirulina on anything. She'll whip up seitan in five minutes flat. Sometimes she'll get a little extra crazy and create something truly magical, and sometimes—very rarely—she'll wind up with a dud. But, that's the cost this culinary adventurer pays for all her stellar successes. So, she was once dining on a bowl of soup that looked, well, sort of like what you'd expect to find floating along the coast during a red tide. When I asked her what it was, she said, "Bachelor soup. It's my specialty." The "bachelor" part comes from the fact that this dreamy dish takes all of three minutes to make, and can be eaten straight from the pot while standing over the stove, like a barbarous bachelor. She was generous enough to share some with me, and ever since, I've been hopelessly hooked. I could eat this garnly looking soup day and night for the rest of my life.

Joelle's Bachelor Soup

Serves 1

What You Need:
6 cups water
1/2 tablespoon Tom Yum paste
1/2 cup frozen rice cakes
1/8 cup dried seaweed (we like wakame)
8 ounces tofu (or 1/2 asceptic package)
1/2 cup vegetable stock

What You Do:

1. In a medium pot over medium-high heat, bring water to a boil. Add Tom Yum paste and rice cakes, and boil for 1 minute.
2. Reduce heat to medium. Add seaweed, tofu, and vegetable stock, and simmer for 2 minutes, or until seaweed is soft. Serve in a bowl, if you must.

The Final Word: The seaweed is easily the most expensive item in this soup, and that can be lessened by buying in bulk from your local health-food store. Check the "ethnic" section of any major grocery store to find Tom Yum paste, or head to your local Asian grocery. Be bold. Enjoy this awesome, cheap soup. See if luck doesn't find you.