Category: Soups

Vegetarian Hot and Sour Soup

As I have mentioned before, our grandson is a vegetarian. When I decided to make hot and sour soup for dinner while he was staying with us, I had to devise a recipe that would respect his diet preferences. Like most traditional hot and sour soups, our Hot and Sour Soup is made with chicken broth and pork. It’s not an authentic Chinese recipe, but it tastes darn good and is better than many versions that we have eaten in Chinese restaurants.

By substituting vegetable broth and soup base for chicken broth and bouillon and adding a little extra flavor via fresh ginger root, garlic and a serrano pepper, we ended up with a tasty soup for a vegetarian. I may be prejudiced, but I thought it was almost as good as our regular hot and sour soup.

Will ate a small serving without complaining, even though hot and sour soup is not one of his favorites. As a reward I let him choose the breakfast menu for the next day, and so we had Fluffy Buttermilk Pancakes.

This is a recipe to have ready if there are any vegetarians in your family or circle of friends. The soup is low in calories and carbohydrates and if you are careful to use pure cornstarch and vegetable soup base, it will also be gluten free. What more could you ask for? Oh yes, I’ve already said it, but it bears repeating: IT TASTES GOOD.

INGREDIENTS:

1 tsp. minced ginger root
1 tsp. minced garlic
1 serrano pepper
1 4 oz. can sliced shiitake mushrooms
6 to 8 oz. extra or super firm tofu
1 8 oz. can sliced bamboo shoots
3 1/4 cups water, divided
3 tsp. vegetable soup base or bouillon cubes
Dash of black pepper
1 quart vegetable broth
2 T soy sauce
1/4 tsp. white pepper
1/4 tsp. chili paste
1/4 cup white vinegar
4 T cornstarch
1 large egg
1/2 tsp. toasted sesame oil
2 green onions

PROCEDURE:

Start by preparing the ingredients. Peel and mince the ginger and garlic. Wearing gloves, wash and cut off the stem and slice the serrano pepper lengthwise into quarters. Remove and discard the seeds and white membrane and mince the pepper. Drain the mushrooms and bamboo shoots and cut the bamboo shoots into matchsticks. Cut the tofu into quarter inch strips about one and one-half inches long. Put all these ingredients into a bowl ready to be added to the soup at the right time.

Wash and cut off the root end from the onions, chop them into eighth-inch rounds and set them aside in a small bowl. You will add the chopped onion to the soup just before you serve it.

Dissolve the vegetable soup base or bouillon in three cups of hot water. Bring the liquid to a boil, then add the minced ginger, garlic, chopped pepper, mushrooms, bamboo shoots and tofu and simmer for five minutes. Add the vegetable broth, black pepper, soy sauce, white pepper, chili paste and vinegar. Raise the heat slightly and stir the soup as it returns to a simmer.

Meanwhile, dissolve the cornstarch in a quarter cup of cold water and whisk it into the soup. Cook the soup for three minutes until it thickens slightly, then remove it from the heat.

Beat the egg in a cup or small bowl until it is lemon yellow, then slowly dribble it into the soup, stirring very gently with a chopstick or fork. Stir in the sesame oil and chopped onions. Taste and adjust the seasoning. You may want to add a little more vinegar or chili paste.

Serve with bread and salad.

NOTES: You will find chili paste in the Asian or ethnic food section of any good supermarket. Chili paste is not chili sauce, which is a variety of ketchup. Chili paste is made of ground up chili peppers with extra heat added. It keeps years in the refrigerator, so a jar lasts a long time. WARNING: Do not try tasting a spoonful of chili paste. You will regret it.

You might want to start with just an eighth teaspoon of chili paste. You can always add more when you adjust the seasoning.

You can use dried shitake mushrooms if you like. Just follow directions for rehydrating them. In an emergency you can even use ordinary sliced button mushrooms, though they will give your soup a slightly different flavor. You may end up preferring them.

Caribbean Black Bean Soup

Many years ago for two days in a row I lunched on a vegetable soup made with pork, black beans, whole kernel corn and a variety of peppers. The final touch was lime juice which produced a bright fresh flavor. It was so good that I returned the second day just to have another bowl of the stuff. As I recall the waitress told me that it was a Cuban soup.

It was rather spicy, which may explain why it disappeared from the menu. Many cooks in northern Wisconsin think that they are being generous when they stir a tablespoon of chili powder into a gallon of tomato sauce and kidney beans. I have often thought of trying to create a soup that at least reminds me of that wonderful example of that Caribbean cuisine.

Having a few extra ears of sweet corn left over from dinner the night before and a pork hock languishing in the freezer, I decided to give it a shot. I began by reading about fifty recipes on the Web, most of which appeared to be nothing like I remembered. I then made a list of ingredients that I guessed had been in the soup I had eaten those many years ago and started work. The one ingredient I would never have included on my own was the molasses. In fact, I added it only after my wife and I tasted the soup just before I served it. We agreed that the molasses adds depth to the flavor without any sweetness.

I call this my Caribbean soup because it is simply one that reminds me of soups from the Bahamas, Jamaica and the Mayan Riviera. As one glance would tell you, I am not a native of the Caribbean, but I do love the foods developed by generations of cooks using ingredients common on the islands and coasts of that sea.

INGREDIENTS:

1 lb. dried black beans
1 smoked pork hock
About 2 qts. water
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 large bay leaf
3 T olive oil
1 large yellow onion (2 cups chopped)
1 medium green bell pepper (1 cup chopped)
1/2 medium red bell pepper (1 cups chopped)
1 large or two small jalapeño peppers (about 1/3 cup chopped)
1 large carrot
1 rib of celery
3 large garlic cloves
1 1/2 – 2 cups whole kernel corn
1 T cumin
1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
2 cups chicken broth or stock
1/2 tsp. hot sauce
1 T molasses
2 – 3 T lime juice

PROCEDURE:

Sort and rinse the beans the night before you plan on making the soup, removing any stones or other contaminants. Put the beans in a mixing bowl and cover them with an inch or more of cold water. Let them soak overnight.

Drain and rinse the beans until the water runs clear and put them and the pork hock into a soup pot or large Dutch oven. Add enough cold water to cover the beans and hock by an inch. Add the salt and bay leaf. Bring the pot to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer the beans and hock for about two hours.

Prepare the vegetables while the beans are cooking. Remove the dry outer layer from the onion and chop it into a quarter-inch dice. Set the onion aside in a small bowl.

Wash and stem the bell and jalapeño peppers. Remove the white membranes and seeds and chop the peppers into a quarter inch dice. Peel and clean a large carrot, cut it lengthwise into quarters and chop it into eighth-inch pieces. Clean and chop the celery into a quarter-inch dice. Remove the paper and stem ends from the garlic cloves and mince them. Set all these vegetables aside in a medium-sized bowl.

When the beans are tender and the meat is starting to fall off the bones of the hock, remove the hock from the broth. Put three tablespoons of olive oil into a skillet or frying pan over moderate heat and add the onions. Stir frequently while you cook the onions until they are translucent but not brown. Add the peppers, carrot, celery and garlic to the onion along with the cumin and black pepper and cook the vegetables about four minutes, stirring often.

Add two cups of chicken broth to the bean mixture and stir in the vegetables from the skillet along with the corn. Bring the soup to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer for thirty minutes, stirring occasionally. When the hock has cooled somewhat, remove the skin and fat and chop the meat into bite-sized pieces. Stir the meat into the simmering soup.

Taste and adjust the seasoning. You may want to add more salt, hot sauce or lime juice. Serve as is or over cooked rice in soup bowls.

NOTES: Since pork hocks vary in size and saltiness, you could start with only a teaspoon of salt to begin with and add more when you are adjusting the seasoning. You can use frozen or canned whole kernel corn. Kernels cut from left-over ears of corn on the cob also work just fine. You can substitute lime juice from a bottle, but I do think that freshly squeezed juice has more flavor.

If you like your soups spicier, add more hot sauce or just put the bottle on the table. Do the same with lime juice if you want more than a hint of lime.