My cozy little town has been waking up to fog, frosty lawns, and icicle-laden trees. The temperature inside my apartment hovers around a frigid 63° unless I have the heater running all day long, and even then, it doesn’t reach my bedroom. I sleep in an icebox.
It’s in front of a mini waterfall… but this was taken around 3pm
The warmest spot in here is usually the kitchen. And since I’ve been hovering around the stove so much, I figured I might as well get to work warming up from the inside out.
I did both a Google search and a Pinterest search for vegetarian hot and sour soup and kept coming to the same two recipes. I also found a Mark Bittman recipe on Cooking Light. And since I didn’t definitively decide to make this soup tonight until I was at the grocery store this morning, all I had was a mental grocery list based off of three different recipes. Inevitably, some things got left out, recipes got clumped together, and ingredients that weren’t on any list got added.
But what I got was a beautiful, warm, Chinese hot and sour soup that’s lacto-ovo vegetarian-friendly (and could easily be made vegan by omitting the eggs, although it wouldn’t be as pretty without them).
{Vegetarian} Hot & Sour Soup (serves 4+)
Ingredients
1/2 oz. dried mushrooms (I used shiitake)*
32 oz. (1 box) vegetable broth
2 cups water
1 tsp minced garlic1 Tbs minced ginger
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1 Tbs low-sodium soy sauce
8 oz. sliced bamboo shoots*
8 oz. sliced water chestnuts*
1 package organic extra-firm tofu, drained and cut into strips or bite-sized cubes
1 bunch fresh baby bok choy, sliced in half and long-ways
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
drizzle chili oil, to taste*
Instructions
In a medium bowl, pour boiling water over dried mushrooms and let soak 10 minutes (one recipe said 30 minutes). After soaking, remove from water and slice.
In a large pot, bring vegetable broth, 2 cups water, ginger and garlic to a boil. Add mushrooms; reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes.
Stir in rice vinegar, soy sauce, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, and tofu. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes.Add bok choy. Continue to simmer 3 minutes.
Slowly pour in beaten eggs in a steady stream, stirring soup with a fork to create ribbons.
Remove from heat. Drizzle chili oil to taste (or add to each individual bowl to accommodate different tastes).
*I found all these ingredients in the Asian foods section of Berkeley Bowl.
Since it’s pretty light, the soup pairs well with vegetable gyoza (I got mine in the frozen section of Trader Joe’s and popped them in a steaming basket while the soup cooked) and a cup of hot jasmine tea. To make it more filling, I think soba noodles could be added.
Week in Workouts
Monday: Rest
Tuesday: 3 mile treadmill run – 9:31 pace, bar class – 55 minutes
Wednesday: 7 mile run outside – 9:42 pace
Thursday: bar class – 55 minutes
Friday: 4 mile treadmill run – 8:52 pace
Saturday: heated vinyasa – 60 minutes
Sunday: 10 mile run outside – 9:24 pace
Total miles this week: 24
Your soup looks so good. You definitely got gramma’s gene for making food with what you have on hand! Wish I could do that. Like your last couple of posts as well.
Thanks for linking to my soup recipe!