Tag: vegetarian

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.

Linda’s Cranberry Salsa

Fruit salsas are examples of fusion cuisine, which combine recipes or ingredients from two different cultures. Rick Bayless, the Oklahoma kid who abandoned barbecue and took up with tacos, says that fruit salsas apparently originated in the United States but have been infiltrating Mexican cuisine. He should know, since he and his wife Deann spent over six years researching Mexican cooking before publishing Authentic Mexican: Regional Cooking from the Heart of Mexico in 1987.

Linda’s Cranberry Salsa is a good example. It combines traditional ingredients of Mexican salsas—jalapeño peppers, cilantro, and onions—with fresh Wisconsin cranberries. I got the recipe from my sister Patsy in an email which began with a question: “Did I ever give you a recipe for cranberry salsa?”

She had not, but I am always interested in new family recipes. Patsy explained that she got the recipe from Linda, a friend who worked with her at the hospital in Hayward. Linda turned out to be a classmate of mine who shared some of my interests and was on the staff of the school newspaper and competed in forensics.

When I asked Linda how she learned to make this salsa, she told me that she wasn’t sure, but that she thought a friend of hers who lives in Green Bay gave it to her many years ago. Linda liked the salsa and told Patsy about how good it was, prompting my sister to ask for the recipe. Linda obliged, proving once again that we all benefit from an ancient tradition that is still a friendly custom.

To be painfully honest, I had my doubts about this recipe when Patsy sent it to me. Cranberries and jalapeños with cilantro and cumin? No way! But when she told me that she makes a batch every fall when fresh cranberries become available, I decided to try it. She’s a good cook. I now have to agree with her conclusion: “The salsa is sweet, but oddly enough the bite from the jalapenos and the salt from the chips (I use mulitgrain Scoops) made it taste good.”

When I offered a sample to our neighbor Jill, she hesitated before saying she would try some. Later she confessed to the same doubts I harbored, but she now wants to make more herself and has asked for the recipe.

Cranberries are plentiful now, and you can find jalapeño peppers and cilantro at your local supermarket. Now’s the time to treat your football fans to a batch of Linda’s cranberry salsa.

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup water
1 cup sugar
4 cups cranberries
2-3 jalapeño peppers
1 T cilantro
2-3 green onions
1/2 tsp. cumin
Dash of salt
1 T fresh lime juice (half an average lime)

PROCEDURE:

Wash the cranberries and jalapeño peppers. Coarsely chop the cranberries.

Combine the water and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring until all the sugar has dissolved. Raise the heat and bring the mixture to a boil Reduce the heat and boil slowly for ten minutes without stirring to make a thin syrup.

Prepare the vegetables while the syrup is cooking. Cut the stems from the peppers, slice them into quarters and remove the seeds and white membranes. Then slice each quarter in half and chop the peppers into a quarter-inch dice. Clean and cut the onions into eighth-inch slices, discarding the root ends. Wash and chop the cilantro medium fine.

After the syrup has cooked for ten minutes, pour it into a mixing bowl and allow it to cool slightly, four or five minutes. Wash a lime and juice half of it.

Add the cranberries, peppers, cilantro, onions, cumin, salt and lime juice to the syrup and mix lightly. Taste and adjust the flavors as you wish. You may want to add a little more cilantro, cumin or lime juice.

Refrigerate the salsa for at least an hour. Serve at room temperature with tortilla chips or dippers.

NOTES: The flavor improves if you allow the salsa to rest for several hours or overnight so the flavors can blend. When you adjust the seasoning, be careful not to add too much salt. Keep in mind that tortilla chips usually are quite salty.

My brother-in-law Patrick grew up around a lot of Scandinavians and acquired their preference for less spicy foods. He likes a mild version of this salsa with only one jalapeño. As Pat says, “You can make it exactly the way you like it.”

If you don’t have a food processor (like us) or a food chopper, you can just cut the cranberries into fourths.