When I’m sick, I crave hot and sour soup. Since we’re smack in the middle of cold season, I am surely not the only one out there with a nasty bug — so it’s the perfect time for me to give you all this recipe for vegetarian hot and sour soup.
Traditionally, hot and sour soup has a pork or beef base; however, I feel as though earthy dried mushrooms and silky pieces of firm tofu make this soup “meaty” enough. This soup did a fantastic job both in clearing my head and lifting my spirits. The heat from the ginger and pepper cleared my head and sinuses like a charm! It’s so easy to make that I could put it together easily even though I was still really drowsy from my cold medicine. Just a ton of veggies, some herbs and spices, and before I knew it, I was back in bed, all snuggled in blankets and slurping this yummy soup. It was so good, I ate it for three meals in a row!
Now I feel super, this soup is not only delicious, but it’s overflowing with vitamins and antioxidants from all of the veggies. Whether you’ve caught a bug or not, heat yourself up a big bowl of hot and sour soup tonight.
With love,
Erica
Ingredients
1 oz. dried mixed mushrooms
8 cups water
3 tablespoons sherry cooking wine
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1-1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 tablespoon grated ginger
1 pound extra firm tofu, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 eggs, lightly beaten
6 scallions, trimmed and thinly sliced
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
Pure sesame oil, for serving
Remove the mushrooms from the hot water and reserve the liquid for the soup. Slice the mushrooms thinly.
In a soup pot, combine the remaining 6 cups of water with the reserved liquid from the mushrooms and the sliced mushrooms. Bring to a gentle boil over medium-high heat. Add the sherry, vinegar, soy sauce, salt, ginger and tofu. Reduce the heat and allow to simmer uncovered for about 10 minutes.
In a small bowl, whisk the cornstarch with about 3/4 cup of hot broth from the soup pot until cornstarch is dissolved. Pour the mixture back into the soup pot, stirring to distribute. The soup should thicken slightly. While stirring constantly, drizzle the beaten eggs into the hot soup. Add the scallions and white pepper and cook for another minute or two.
Serve hot with a drizzle of sesame oil on top.
Yum, I'm thinking about doing soups all of next week. Is this a soup that can hold in the fridge and be reheated?
Yes! Just give it a stir and heat up on the stove!
This recipe sounds amazing!
I made this tonight and it was delicious!
Big fan of egg drop soup, never knew to add cornstarch, so this was awesome.
Hi! This looks delicious. About how many servings does it make?
Sorry… no flavor what so ever..no hot or sour.
Had to add a lot more things to fix it..still doesn't taste like the Chinese restaurant kind at all!!
Sorry the soup had no flavor whatsoever. No hot no sour! I even added a lot more things to help it out but it still didn't taste like the authentic kind that you find in the Asian restaurants. Quite the disappointing bomber.