Bok choy soup

Sometimes the best meals come together completely by accident and this is one of those situations.  I started preparing dinner mid-afternoon with the intention of making beef stew since I had a surplus of carrots and potatoes in the refrigerator from past CSA boxes.  I had recently picked up some delicious grass fed beef from Colvin Ranch (I'll expand on the experience in a future post) that included some soup bones/meat.

My plan was to strip the meat from the bones, create a beef stock with the bones, and use the meat in the stew.  Only when I opened the package did I realize it was much more bone than meat and wouldn't be nearly enough to create a stew out of.  In fairness to Colvin Ranch, the package was clearly labeled and sold as soup bone.  Only in my frugality cheapness did I think I could pull enough meat off the bone.

After searing the meat I added carrots, onion, bok choy stems, peppercorns, and a bay leaf to create beef stock.  I simmered everything with a few cups of water while I figured out what to create with the stock.

After taking inventory of what was available to me in the kitchen I settled on creating an Asian inspired soup (a faux pho one might say).  I used this recipe as a guide for seasoning (I followed the suggestions in the comments to reduce the amount of fish sauce the recipe called for).  I didn't have any mushrooms but added in a package of ramen noodles to create some density in the soup.

This soup was surprisingly perfect.  I'm going to try it again soon since we have more bok choy but next time with canned chicken broth to see if it comes close to this version.