Adventures of a healthy-ish pseudo-foodie

Chard, not seaweed. But that would be good too. I've tried a few different recipes for hot and sour soup, and they've always just left me wishing that I had gotten Chinese takeout instead. But this one! This one is good! And that's even without the white pepper, which sources say is the most important ingredient. (I'll buy some before next time.) I followed  this recipe from Amy in the Kitchen , because she has my name, and also because the recipe looked straightforward and had no pork in it. The only changes I made were to use vegetable broth instead of beef broth, dried shiitakes instead of regular mushrooms, and I scaled down all of the amounts. I also added chard this time, because it is exploding in the garden and I'm adding it to every meal. And as previously mentioned, I didn't have any white pepper, but I've kept it in the instructions below because I trust the internet that it will make it even better. The Recipe: 4 c vegetable broth 2 dried shiitak

  Alongside Instant Pot refried black beans . I've tried making Mexican rice many times, and I've always failed. I think it's because the tomato/moisture ratio has to be just right, to avoid a mushy mess? Anyway, I'm so happy to finally have succeeded enough to save this recipe. I think there's room for improvement, but this was great next to some refried beans. It is noteworthy that I liked the cooked carrots in it. I don't usually like cooked carrots. But the way these were cooked, in the instant pot with all of the other flavors in there, made them perfectly seasoned and delicious. I followed  this recipe  from Tastes Better From Scratch. My changes were that I increased the amount of rice and water to make a bit more, I left out the peas and I used a packet of Trader Joe's chicken stock concentrate instead of tomato bouillon. I might look for tomato bouillon for next time, though! Also, it didn't specify what type of rice to use, but I used basmati.