I bet you thought I was kidding, didn't you? BUT NO.

Hot hot soup is an excellent way to sweat and pant out all the similarly hot heat melting you from the very inside out. Have it with iced tea and you get GIGANTIC TEMPERATURE PARADOX that threatens the world at the very fiber of its being!! ! I know you love causing interplanetary paradox!

OK.

So after the whole chicken soup escapade, we discovered that our entire freezer was totally full of chicken broth. What better base for hot hot soup of this nature? Plus we need to put other things in the freezer at some time in the future. Also to use the our entire supply of tupperware in which the broth is housed.

Anyway, with a decent stock base of any type, meat to vegan, soup is fast, easy, and delightful. How often do you say that about your dinner!! ! EXCLAMATION POINT!

Hot hot soup is made possible by actual tiny Thai hot peppers, Sriracha sauce, lemon juice, and the letter s, for SOY. It also has noodles and spinach, incidentally.

Double hot soup

decent stock base, veg or meat, as mentioned
a couple fresh Thai chili peppers or substitute
Sriracha sauce or other hot chili sauce
juice of half a lemon or so
some soy sauce
appropriate noodles
raw spinach

I had to start this out by defrosting my broth enough to get it out of the container, which meant just running it under hot water until the edges were loose. You may have non-frozen broth and get to skip this step; who can say? Pour the broth in a saucepan and put it over medium-high heat to melt it/bring it to a simmer. Add your peppers, whole, and let everything simmer together (with lid, to prevent broth loss through evaporation) for five minutes or so, such that the broth gets all hot hot hot and tasty. I totally just stuck my peppers on top of the melting block of stock and let them slide into the broth of their own volition.

Once the stock has simmered a bit, it's time to season it. I added several good squirts of Sriracha, a medium splash of soy, and juice squidged from the juiciest lemon ever. It was so juicy that when John came home later he ate the other half. Yes: lemon! Let simmer a bit more, then taste and see what you think of the seasonings. I like it hot hot hot; I added even more Sriracha.

Now we can start thinking about noodles. I had Beijing noodles, which are the extremely thin long wheat noodles that cook in two seconds. This meant I could just stick my noodles directly into the broth and let them cook there. If you have more sturdy noodles, you probably will want to actually boil another pot of water for them. If you have ramen, you can just pour water boiled in the teakettle over them. Whatever. When they're done, add them to the broth.

Spinach: chop up a bunch of it. Warm your intended bowl for a couple minutes with hot water from the sink. When everything is done and ready, pour out the water and add the raw spinach.

Assembly: pour your soup and noodles over your spinach. This will wilt the spinach admirably. Fish out your hot peppers if you want; don't eat them unless you really like that sort of thing, as these little peppers are extremely hot.

Eat everything hot hot! It is hot! Slurp, because it's polite and will keep you from being burned. Chopsticks and a spoon are kind of necessary for eating something like this. Or you can just eat the noodles and spinach, then drink the soup. Then drink your iced tea. Then drink your soup again. High temperature contrast! HOT HOT HOT!