Well, I didn't intend to make a recipe post as a "come back" but it seemed the quickest and easiest thing to do right now. And it's one of my favorite recipes!
Hot & Sour Soup. (with crappy cell phone photos)
This is my original recipe that I adapted from various recipes for hot and sour soup that I've used over the years. I tend to cook a lot of Asian inspired food because it gets most of its flavor from spices and herbs, rather than from fat or meat. And you rarely see cheese on a Chinese menu, so that makes converting these recipes to vegan a lot easier!
The list of ingredients is relatively small and comprised of things you can usually find at your local grocery store:
- 8 - 10 dried shiitake mushrooms (or other dried, tree-growing mushroom)*
- 4 - 6 white button, cremini, or other fresh, ground-growing mushrooms
- 1 1/2 tablespoons fresh ginger root (about a 2 inch piece, peeled and grated)
- 4 green onions
- 1 can (8 oz) sliced bamboo shoots
- 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes (Optional)
- 1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper **
- 1/4 cup soy sauce or tamari (low sodium is fine)
- 1/4 cup rice vinegar or apple cider vinegar **
- 2 quarts (8 cups) vegetable broth
- 1/2 block of firm tofu, pressed
- 3 tablespoons cornstarch mixed with 1/4 cup cold water or cold broth
I forgot to put the tofu and cornstarch in the photo. *sigh*
* The dried shiitake mushrooms might not be something you can find at all grocery stores. But if you've never been to your local Asian market, you are sorely missing out on a whole WORLD of fascinating ingredients to use! The dried mushrooms are a key flavor component of the soup, so you should try to find shiitake or another dried tree mushroom (like tree ear or cloud ear).
** The way I have the recipe written it has (what I consider) a mild heat, but it is noticeable. Eliminate the red pepper if you can't do hot. It's also only mildly sour, but you can half the vinegar component if that's too off-putting for your tastes. Or increase the pepper and vinegar if you like it really hot and sour!
SO, let's get on with the prepping! The first thing to do is to re-hydrate the mushrooms. I put them in a pot of water (at least 4 cups) and set it on high heat.
When the pot reaches a rolling boil, remove it from the heat and place a plate over the mushrooms so they are forced below the surface of the water. Let them sit for about an hour.
Next, prep the tofu. I'll call this an 'optional' ingredient but I wouldn't consider this a hot & sour soup without tofu. You can leave it out if you like, or substitute it with something like more mushrooms or another vegetable. When using tofu you need to make sure it's either firm or extra firm tofu. NOT silken tofu. They are very different.
You can use the tofu straight out of the container, but it will absorb more flavor from the soup if you first press out the gross water it comes packaged in. There's a hundred ways to do this, but I simply cut the block into four equal (sorta) slabs and put them between the layers of folded kitchen towel or some paper towels...
Then I put something flat on top, like another cutting board or a baking dish, then put weight on top of that. In this case I'm using the cast iron pot I'll be cooking the soup in.
While the mushrooms are re-hydrating and the tofu is... dehydrating... we can get the rest of the ingredients ready.
Drain the can of bamboo shoots and cut them into skinnier strips. This might be called 'match sticking' or 'julienne-ing' or something. (I should learn these things!)
You could probably just dump them into the soup whole, but who wants a giant slice of bamboo shoot on their spoon? Also I think you can find these already thinly sliced like this.
I usually use white mushrooms as the fresh mushroom in this, but I had cremini (baby portabellas) on hand. Use whatever you've got! Experiment with any fancy mushrooms you find in the store. :) Anyway, these need to be sliced thin. You want to end up with 1 or 1 1/2 cups of sliced fresh 'shrooms.
Drain and slice the shiitakes. Before you slice them you need to remove the woody stalks (unless you really enjoy chewing). I guess you can use kitchen shears, but I just kinda fold them over to poke out the stem and then cut it off with a sharp knife.
Once de-stemmed, slice them as thin as you can. They are going to have a meaty "chew" to them (as dried mushrooms do), so you want them thin and tender. You should end up with about 1 1/2 or 2 cups of sliced shiitakes.
I only use half a block of tofu. So just two of those slabs I pressed earlier. The other two slabs can go into the freezer for something else later. For the soup, though, cut each slab into four parts as shown and slice off half inch segments. You could make these larger, but keep in mind the tofu is going to absorb liquid and puff up a bit when it cooks.
Thinly slice the white ends of the green onions. That's everything from the root to where the stems start to branch away. The green ends can be sliced and used for "sprinkle-ons" at the table.
Peel and grate the ginger root. You want to end up with about 1 1/2 tablespoons. (TIP: using a fork to hold the ginger keeps human blood out of your recipe.)
Once that's done, everything is ready to go into the pot!
To add oil, or not to add oil... This can be made totally fat free by using a good non-stick pot and some water or broth to keep the ingredients loose on the bottom, but I only use a mere teaspoon of coconut oil in this whole recipe. (You can use any flavorless oil.) Your mouth recognizes even the tiniest bit of fat so just this small amount will make the soup seem richer than it really is.
Put the pot on medium high and heat the oil (if using it). Then add the bamboo shoots, onions, ginger, and pepper. Stir for a few seconds, then add all the mushrooms.
Cook, stirring often, for about 5 minutes. Add the soy sauce and vinegar and cook, stirring often, for another 2 or 3 minutes until it starts to get really aromatic and people from the next room come to investigate what smells so good.
Add the vegetable broth and turn the heat up a little to bring it to a simmer. Once there, reduce the heat and let it simmer (lid off) for about 10 minutes. Or until people from the house next door come over to investigate what smells so good. ;)
Add the tofu and continue to simmer for 3 more minutes.
Mix together the cornstarch and liquid-of-choice until it's a smooth slurry. The corn starch is what gives the soup that "silky" texture you are familiar with in restaurant hot & sour soup. So it's really a necessary component. Pour it into the soup, stir, and continue to simmer until it thickens. It will only take a minute. Remove the pot from the heat and let stand for 10 minutes, then serve garnished with green onions.
Doing the calculations, this entire pot of soup only has about 635 calories in it. The ENTIRE pot. And I was rounding up! So that's only 80 calories in an appetizer portion and 160 in a meal sized portion. We usually eat this as the main meal component, with some rice or vegetables on the side. It's even better warmed up the next day for lunch!
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