Herbal seaweed and tofu soup

Serves 2 - 4

Difficulty: Medium ***

Ingredients:

200 g tofu
handful fresh coriander
handful dry seaweed
1 stock cube
2 cloves garlic
10 ml soy sauce
100 g zucchini
1 tsp anis seed
1 cinammon stalk
1 tsp cloves
1 tsp nutmeg
1 thumb-sized piece fresh ginger (crushed)
1 tsp fennel
1 handful kaffir lime leaves

Optional: 200 grams rice or wheat noodles

1. Place anis, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, ginger, kaffir lime leaves and fennel in a small pot with a little bit of water and bring to a boil, then turn on low heat.
2. Allow to simmer under lid as you prepare the rest of the ingredients.
 *for best results, prepare herbal mixture an hour in advance
3. Put one litre of water in a large pot, and add stock cube and soy sauce.
4. Turn on medium heat.
5. Dice tofu, slice zucchini and add them to soup, along with seaweed.
6. Crush and finely chop garlic.
7. Place in a small pan with a bit of cooking oil and fry until golden brown, then remove from heat.
8. Chop coriander.
9. Strain herb mixture through a sieve or tea-strainer, into the soup
10. Add garlic to the soup and serve with coriander.

If you are adding noodles to your soup, add them as number '9.5', and wait until the noodles are cooked (about 2-3 minutes) before progressing to 10.

As a soup, the dish is good as a side for about 4 people.  With the noodles, expect a large main for 2 or a more modest main for 3.

This dish had an interesting effect on my Finnish guinea pig.  He liked it, and said it was like having gingerbread cookies in savoury liquid form.  Similar spices are used in Finnish gingerbread cookies.  If you're worried the association will throw you, don't use the cinnamon, and use galangal instead of ginger.