Hot And Sour Soup

Tweet

Have you met anyone who is super prepared to face anything the day throws at them. These are the girls/women who tote rather large bags/ purses that contain everything from a small sized hand lotion to hand sanitizer to even a clothes stain remover. Amazing isn't it, I always admire such people, they seem to anticipate every possibility that could come their way in a day. 

Recently when I was in a buffet style restaurant which serves soups and salads, I observed this couple that sat at a nearby table. Like everyone else they too had filled their plates with salad. Then the girl whipped out a large tote and removed a couple of bottles from it. It seemed to contain olive oil and soy sauce which she proceeded to use to flavor her salad. I could not believe my eyes, I have seen a lot of well prepared people but never so well prepared that they carry their choice of sauces and oils to add to their salad when eating out.I think if there was ever an award instituted for being the most well prepared for the day, that girl definitely would qualify for it :-)

Moving on, here is a hot and sour soup that belongs to the category of Indo-Chinese or Indian-Chinese cuisine. I have already mentioned about this type of cuisine here and here so I will not go into it again. Suffice to say this soup with its blend of spice, tart and sweet flavors is one of our favorites. When served in restaurants this tends to be thicker with lesser vegetables, but when I make it at home I make it a little lighter with far more vegetables. One of the best things about this soup other than its taste, is that it is very quick to prepare and can easily be made in under thirty minutes.





Click here for a printable view of this recipe

The copyright of this content belongs to Veginspirations.com

Ingredients and Method to make Hot and Sour Soup

2 large carrots cut fine (yielded 1 1/2 cups of cut carrots)
8 button mushrooms sliced thin ( yielded about 2 cups cut mushrooms)
1/4 head cabbage cut fine (yielded about 2 1/4 cups of finely cut cabbage)
1 tsp salt ( or to taste)
approximately 5 cups of water or stock ( I used water)

7 tbsp Light (reduced sodium) soy sauce (or to taste) (see notes)
3 tbsp chili sauce (Chinese style ) (or to taste)
3 tbsp Tomato ketchup
1 tbsp Vinegar
1 1/2 tbsp Corn starch (Corn flour) mixed well in 1/4 cup of water so that there are no lumps

Add all the vegetables, salt and water to a heavy bottomed pan and allow it to come to a boil.

Lower heat and allow the vegetables to cook until slightly soft

Add soy sauce, chili sauce, ketchup and vinegar. Taste test and add some more if required.

Add the corn starch mixed with water to this soup. Allow  it to simmer for a minute or two for the flavors to mingle.

Serve hot.

Serves approximately 2 to 3

The copyright of this content belongs to Veginspirations.com

Notes:
If you want a thicker soup you can increase the quantity of corn starch to 2 tbsp or 2 1/2 tbsp depending on how thick you want it. Usually restaurants serve this soup with a thicker gravy, I like mine light, so if you want restaurant style soup you might want to increase the quantity of corn starch/ flour.

You can garnish this soup with finely chopped green part of green onions

I used reduced sodium, light soy sauce, if you use regular soy sauce you may need lesser quantity of it, as it may be stronger.


This soup is off to the Healthy Inspirations Event - Soup that is currently going on here...