On Monday January 27, 2014 CommunityGrows led the after-school youth at Hayward Rec Center in San Francisco through the paces to make a hearty miso soup. They stemmed and chopped kale, cut up carrots, sweet potatoes and onions, boiling and peeled hard boiled eggs, and added soba noodles. Everyone was busy creating and contributing to the adventure.
While the soup cooked Adrian Almquist, CommunityGrows Garden Educator read the book, “How Did That Get in My Lunchbox?: The Story of Food,” by Chris Butterworth. 
The story highlighted one of the best parts of a young child’s day—opening a lunchbox and diving in. It explored with great drawings how the delicious food got there? From planting wheat to mixing dough, climbing trees to machine-squeezing fruit, picking cocoa pods to stirring a vat of melted bliss, the story was an engaging look at the steps involved in producing some common foods. Health tips and a peek at basic food groups also completed the discussion. For more photos, check out our CommunityGrows Flickr Photostream here.
The recipe follows.
Miso Ramen
Ingredients:
4 hard boiled eggs
10 cups water or more
1 large onion, chopped
2 medium carrots, chopped
2 medium sweet potatoes, chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 pound chard, kale, or spinach, chopped
1 teaspoon sesame oil
miso paste, to taste
Ramen noodles
seaweed, Hijiki or Nori
1 tablespoon soysauce
Directions:
1. In a large pot, heat oil over medium-high heat. Sauté onion, potatoes, and carrots until tender, about 5 minutes.
2. Add water. Cook on medium-high heat until potatoes and carrots are tender, about 15 minutes.
3. Boil eggs until hardboiled about 12 minutes
4. Boil Ramen Noodles until tender in a separate pot, and drain.
5. Add cvhard to soup and cook for 5 minutes more. Turn off heat and add miso to taste. Add noodles. Peel boiled eggs and cut in half.
6. Garnish with nori seaweed and half a boiled egg.
ENJOY!