Vegetarian Hot and Sour Soup

I crave Hot and Sour Soup when I get sick. I love it when it's so spicy it clears up my sinuses. This is a vegetarian version I've been playing around with. It has egg but you could omit that if you really wanted to. I recommend leaving the egg in the recipe unless you're going for a vegan dish.

The hardest part is the chopping. Once I started chopping I just kept going until I had everything chopped. I put half of everything in a big bowl and put it in the fridge for the next day. Hot and Sour soup on the second day is so much faster. You could just double the recipe and use everything at once.

I always crave this when I'm sick so I usually go for a pretty hot flavor. You can scale back on the pepper and chili garlic sauce and add more to taste.

I find that the trick to a restaurant taste is to let it cook for a long time so the tofu becomes less tofu-y. If you don't mind the tofu taste you can eat it a lot sooner. I think restaurants have a big pot on a burner and they just let it simmer until someone orders it.

Hot and Sour Soup

1 32 oz box Vegetable broth

2 cubes vegetable bouillon

2 cups water

1/4 c rice vinegar

1/8 c low sodium soy sauce

1-2 Tbsp Chili Garlic Sauce, start with 1 tbsp and increase to taste

1 pinch of sugar

1/2-1 tsp of finely ground white pepper

1/2 can of bamboo shoots, cut into matchsticks

1/4 package firm tofu, cut into matchsticks, drain on paper towel

2-3 green onions, chopped

1/2  package of gourmet mushroom blend, further sliced into thin pieces

3 Tbsp of corn starch

3 Tbsp cold water

1 Egg

Slices of green onion and La Choy Fried Rice Noodles to garnish (Optional)

Start with your tofu to give it time to drain.  Cut your tofu into matchsticks and place on a paper towel to drain. 

Add your broth, bouillon, water, vinegar, soy sauce, chili garlic sauce, sugar and pepper to a soup pot. Allow it to come to a boil. Add vegetables and tofu and bring back to a gentle boil. Turn heat to simmer and place a lid on the pot. Allow to simmer for at least an hour. I don't like my tofu to taste like tofu so I cook it until it taste like something else. I left this particular batch simmering for just over two and a half hours. Yum!

In a small bowl or measuring cup, add your corn starch and the cold water and stir. Slowly add this to your pot while stirring. I add it 1/3 at a time, stirring slowly. You may not need all of it. This will thicken it up. Allow it to simmer a while longer for the corn starch to cook up and the soup to thicken.

In a small bowl or measuring cup (I rinsed and reused the same one), beat an egg with a fork. Beat it to within an edge of its life. You don't want any big pieces. Beating is good here.

Now...I have trouble with this part. But slowly stir the soup in one directions. While you are stirring it SLOWLY drizzle in your beaten egg in a small stream.

Continue to cook for another few minutes to make sure the eggs cook up.

Bowl it up with more sliced green onion and the La Choy Fried Egg Noodles on top.

The noodles add a nice crunch!

Vegetarian Corn Chowder

It was a cold and rainy election day. Since I voted last week I spent time cooking up a pot of a smokey vegetarian corn chowder. By adding smoked paprika and chipotle powder it adds a nice smokey flavor to replace the popular bacon.

Corn Chowder

1 T EVOO
1 T butter
1 small onion, chopped
1 medium carrot, chopped
1 can creamed corn
2 cans corn, drained*
1 can or box of Cream of Mushroom soup concentrate (I used Pacific Natural Foods organic)
5 Yukon Gold Potatoes, peeled and chopped**
1 box vegetable broth
1/2 cup half and half
1 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp ground rosemary
2 bay leaves
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp chipotle chili powder
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp pepper
1 pinch of celery seed
1 pinch of cayenne or to taste

Add EVOO and butter to a soup pot over medium heat, add onions, salt  and carrots and cook until onions are clear. Add corn, soup and broth and stir well to combine. Bring to boil. Add potatoes and spices and cook for 30 minutes. You can cook it longer but 30 minutes will get the potatoes cooked.

Remove the bay leaves.

Use a cup or ladle to move about half of the soup to a blender. Leave vent on blender top open to avoid steam build up and blend to chowderize. Pour the blended back into the pot of unblended soup. I used an immersion blender and ran it through the pot to blend about half of it. Add half and half and let heat through for another 5-10 minutes.

Serve with oyster crackers and a splash of your favorite hot sauce. I added Cholula because it adds even more smokey flavor. 

*This is a great way to use any frozen corn you have in the freezer. 

** I like to peel my potatoes for soups. I don't like the bite of the peel and there always seems to be bits of peel floating around. If you like peel or if you're in a big hurry, don't peel them. It's just my preference. You can also use frozen potatoes if you're in a pinch.