Spicy Pork and Beet Green Soup

I've never been a huge soup person, but I've discovered this winter that I love jam-packed soups like this one. It's got noodles, greens, ground pork and mushrooms-it's almost more like noodles and veggies with sauce than a soup. I used this recipe from Bon Appetit, with some changes. I substituted beet greens for mustard greens, since my grocery store didn't carry the latter, and I added mushrooms, because everything is better with mushrooms. I suspect mustard greens would be better, since they've got more of a bite, but the beet greens worked fine.

Total time to cook: 50 minutes
Makes four servings (Sky and I made only enough noodles as we needed for each night-if you make all the noodles and they sit in the broth overnight, they'll absorb the liquid)

Ingredients:
1/2 lb ground pork
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 one-inch piece of ginger, thinly sliced
2 tsp crushed red pepper (for less heat, use only one teaspoon)
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 small package of baby bella mushrooms (about 10 mushrooms), trimmed and sliced
4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1 bunch beet greens, separated from the stem and ripped into pieces
4 scallions, thinly sliced
2 tbsp reduced-sodium soy sauce
1 tsp fish sauce
8 oz wide or thin rice noodles (for two people, only make half per meal)
Black pepper

Steps:
- In a medium bowl, mix together the pork, garlic, ginger, red pepper and cumin.
- In a large pot, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the pork, breaking it up into small chunks and seasoning it with some black pepper. Cook for about 10 minutes.
- Mix in the mushrooms, cooking for about five to seven minutes until they soften.

- Add the broth and bring it to a boil. Turn the heat to low and simmer the soup for about 10 minutes.

- While the soup is simmering, cook the rice noodles. Drain and divide them into bowls for serving.

- Mix the greens, scallions, soy sauce and fish sauce into the soup. Cook until the greens are tender, about five minutes.
- Ladle the soup over the noodles and serve hot.