Hot & Sour Soup

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I love Hot and Sour soup! Especially the Indian Chinese kind. Indian Chinese just means the food is cooked by Chinese immigrants that have lived in India for generations. The food they serve is a lot more (IMHO) flavorful and spicy than other Chinese food.

I've had this soup enough times in my lifetime to be able to reproduce this to restaurant perfection in the first try. And of course, I'm going to share this with you!

There are a gazillion ingredients in this soup, but don't be scared - make a big batch and freeze some of it if required.

You can easily make this a vegetarian soup by using veggie stock and omitting the chicken and egg.

Stock

2 liters of chicken stock

If using stock cubes dissolve 2 cubes per liter. Even if you use the cubes, just boil the stock and add any leftover pieces of veggies from this soup or anything in your freezer to enhance the stock. I always freeze pieces of veggies before they go bad and it's ready at a moments notice to enhance any stock.

2 tbsps oil

12 spring onions - chopped bulbs only

4 tbsps finely minced fresh ginger

4 tbsps finely minced garlic

1/2 pound ground chicken

5 tbsps Sambal Oelek or chilli paste

1/2 tsp ground black pepper

1/2 cup chopped while or brown fresh mushrooms

Sliced Shitake mushrooms - 300 ml can OR handful of dried mushrooms soaked in a cup of hot water

2 tbsps finely chopped coriander stems only

3 tbsps rice wine vinegar

3 tbsps dark soya sauce

4 tbsps canned bamboo shoots cut in julienne strips

1 carrot cut in thin julienne strips 

2 tbsps firm tofu cut in julienne slices

2 tbsps cornstarch dissolved in a 1/2 cup of water

1/2 a beaten egg

1/4 cup chopped coriander leaves

1/2 cup chopped spring onion leaves

Heat a few tbsps of oil and saute the chopped spring onion bulbs. Add the chopped ginger and garlic. Saute for a minute and add the minced chicken and break it up so there are no lumps. Add the chilli paste and the fresh mushrooms. Add the boiling stock and quickly add the coriander stems, shitake mushrooms, black pepper, vinegar, soya, bamboo shoots, carrots and tofu. You must add everything really quickly so the carrots maintain their crunch. Add the cornstarch, stir in a beaten egg and stir with a fork to get ribbons of egg and finally add the coriander and spring onion leaves. Taste for salt - if making fresh stock you will need to add more than if using a cube or commercial stock. Enjoy!

Note: If you're planning to freeze this soup - don't add the egg, coriander or spring onions leaves. Add the egg and the fresh leaves after you thaw and reheat.

If you love soup, try my new Tomato soup. So simple to prepare and so big on taste. Click here