Miso Peanut Noodles

This is a good quick meal for using up odds and ends in the fridge.

Boil a quart of water, putting in half a sliced onion and any harder vegetables you are using (carrots, rehydrated dried mushrooms, or the white parts of napa cabbage, for example). Let summer until everything is cooked through. Meanwhile, add three heaping tablespoons of miso and one heaping tablespoon of unsweetened, unsalted peanut butter to the water. Taste for saltiness and adjust.

Add a block of frozen udon, turn the heat up to let the liquid come back up to a boil, and turn down and simmer until the udon is thawed out. Add your softer vegetables (spinach, pea shoots, tong hau, etc.) and any meat or seafood you have around. Like I said, there are no rules with this. I just threw in all the bits of vegetables we had left from eating a week of hot pot. The important part is the miso-peanut combination, which is fantastic. If I'd had some sesame paste I would have added that too. A dash of sake or ponzu would also work well.