Maifun noodle soup

[ilyena_sylph]

large sweet onion
1 stalk celery
half a bag baby carrots
1 small can water chestnuts
1 can baby corn
~2 diced cooked chicken breasts
frozen peas
maifun noodles

chop about 1/3 of a very large sweet onion into a fine dice.
chop 1 stalk of celery into an equally fine dice.
run roughly half a bag of baby carrots through a julienne slicer/mandoline (please don't cut yourself. try and avoid losing bits of fingernail, too).
dice 1 small can sliced water chestnuts.
rinse, then cut 1 can baby corn into about 1/4 - 1/2 inch long pieces.
toss all the above into a large soup/stock pot on medium, drizzle with olive oil (or whatever your preferred oil is) so that there's enough oil that they don't stick.
shake garlic powder over it until there's a fine layer acrosss the whole thing.
add a little celery seed.
add just a touch of chinese five-spice powder.
add paprika (less than the garlic powder, more than anything else).
add a little salt.
about the time the onion goes transluscent, add ~1 cup water, let that work with the veggies and oil for a couple of minutes.
taste-test the broth and add whatever you think it needs to taste better for you.
add whatever your preferred equivalent of two diced, pressure-cooked chicken breasts is (canned, baked, steamed, I don't care and the soup doesn't either.)
add 5 pints water+chicken bouillon/soup base and/or chicken stock to the pot.
Bring it to a nice full boil, and throw in a couple handfuls (whatever looks good) of frozen peas.
Wait for the boil to come back, and drop in 1/2 package broken-up maifun noodles.
Boil 2-4 minutes, remove from heat, serve.