Bountiful leftovers from a sushi and sashimi platter? Use every scrap for a left-overs soup that warms the body and soul.

During these months of dining in rather than out, our weekly treat has been take-out from a local restaurant. If nothing else, it helps to ground us as to what day it is. Friday? Yes, we’ll get take-out. And thus, our weekend of sorts begins.

It’s Friday, we’ll have take-out!

I have the menu pages of local restaurants now bookmarked, and we check out the specials each week. Not exactly the same as getting dressed up on a Friday evening, but we do put on nice music, light candles, and pause for a while over a meal that I did not cook.

In Vermont, you usually have to drive for whatever you need, but we have two restaurants within a half hour of us that offer really good Japanese fare. About once a month we have sushi or sashimi. I even have my grandkids craving this on a regular basis! Ordering Japanese is fun, and we get to use our special little plates, tea pots and cups, condiment dishes, chopsticks and their holders, and glass spoons of course!

A bountiful boat of food

Recently, we ordered a “Love Boat” which was billed as a sushi/sashimi platter for two. Well, this thing could easily have served six people, especially since it came with miso soup and salads as well!

What to do with the leftovers? Well, sushi for breakfast was pretty good, but we still had quite a bit left over. I decided I needed to use up everything on the platter from the fish to the garnishes and condiments; in addition to the fish, I had a big bunch of shredded Daikon radish, some cute little raw carrot rosettes, lettuce, ginger, wasabi, soy sauce, and spicy mayo, not to mention the white rice and various bits of unidentified sushi filling.

Hot soup on a cold day

I could have made a fried rice and fish dish, or my sushi salad, but it was a cold day and soup came to mind.

With the addition of some homemade shrimp stock I had stashed in the freezer, this dish needed only a half an onion, a stalk of celery, a bit of seasoning, and a cup of light coconut milk to come together. It was done in just over a half hour, and was delicious!

Make it yours!

Use whatever you have left over in this, the exact proportions are not important, just chop up what you have, sauté, simmer, combine, and enjoy! If you eat dairy, you can use half-and-half here, or just leave the broth clear.

I served this with little toasts I spread with the left-over spicy mayo. I will now order extra spicy mayo just to eat it on toast the next day! It’s really that good, and simple.

Quick Simmered Sushi and Sashimi Soup

• 1 tsp. neutral oil
• ½ onion, diced
• 1 stalk celery, minced
• 3 carrot rosettes, about half a carrot, diced
• 1 quart shrimp or vegetable stock
• 1 star anise
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 little blob wasabi (1 tbsp.)
• 2 tbsp. pickled ginger, chopped
• 1 tbsp. soy sauce
• 1 cup shredded and chopped Daikon radish
• 2/3 cup cooked white rice
• ½ cup minced lettuce
• ½ lb. mixed fish, cubed 
• 1 cup light or full fat coconut milk
• Salt and pepper to taste

First, dismantle the remnants of the platter. Chop up the radish, take the sushi and sashimi apart and separate into piles of fish and vegetables and rice. Chop up the lettuce, the carrots, and cube the fish.

In a soup pot, combine the onion, celery, and carrot with the oil and sauté until fragrant and translucent. Add the stock, anise, bay, wasabi, ginger, and soy sauce. Bring this to a boil, then reduce the heat and let simmer for 20 minutes.

Add the radish, the rice, the lettuce, and any other bits of sushi filling, and let simmer another five minutes. Then add the fish and continue simmering until the fish is cooked and tender.

Add the coconut milk, taste, season, and heat a little longer to warm the milk.

While the soup simmers, toast bread, then spread liberally with the spicy mayonnaise, and don’t forget your little glass spoons!

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