Illustration by Gracen Hoyle

Vegetarianism in the Latinx community has grown in the past decade, but sometimes family gatherings can leave you hungry for something more than side dishes. What if you’re the only vegetarian in your family but you still want to make a meal everyone will eat? Welcome to Kayla’s Kitchen, a vegetarian food column that will have your non-vegetarian friends asking for seconds.

This column isn’t just for vegetarians, though; it’s for anyone interested in cutting back on their consumption of non-human animals. You see, people who eat vegetarian meals a few times a week are important to the environment and the welfare of non-human animals. Additionally, if you’re looking to pick up a new hobby during quarantine, cooking could be the perfect activity for you. After all, cooking can bring people together, no matter how far apart we are.

This week we’re making fideo, a Mexican noodle soup that you won’t find in Mexican restaurants. Fideo refers to the soup as an entirety, and in my own life, it was usually what some may call a “struggle meal.” I associated the soup with the end of the month before my parents got their next paycheck. After all, a box of Vermicelli fideo pasta is around 28 cents at your local grocery store and serves around two to three people.

As I got older, and transitioned to vegetarianism, fideo became so much more than a meal I had no choice but to eat. After experimenting with different vegetables and spices, I felt more comfortable making fideo for my friends. It turns out, I’m not the only one who loves the comforting noodle soup. To my parents’ surprise, it became a favorite among me and my friends. Fideo no longer represented a last resort meal; it brought people together. So how do you make it? Well, first let’s talk about what goes into it.

INGREDIENTS:

2 boxes of Vermicelli fideo pasta

1 can of tomato sauce

1 tsp of garlic powder

1 tsp of cumin powder

½ tsp of black pepper

1 tomato

2 serrano peppers

1 bunch of cilantro

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Pour the Vermicelli noodles into a pot with oil and let them fry until they look a little brown.

2. Once they are brownish, drain any oil in the sink.

3. Add water to the pot and let the noodles boil for around 10-12 minutes, or until they are at your desired texture.

4. While the noodles boil, add cumin powder, garlic powder and black pepper to your boiling fideo.

5. Chop up the tomato, serrano peppers and cilantro into small pieces and put them in the pot. The smaller your vegetables, the better your fideo will taste.

6. Once the noodles are at your desired texture, let the soup cool down and enjoy!