Ultimate Hot and Sour Soup Recipe with Tofu
Healthy & Easy - Chinese Vegetarian Soup is Good for Colds?
What is the Orient’s answer to the Occidental mom’s cure-all, chicken noodle soup? Why, "Hot and Sour Soup," of course! Anecdotally, Hot and Sour Soup is widely reputed to cure head and chest colds, remedy sour stomachs, and even relieve hangovers. Regardless of whether these claims have any basis in fact, Hot and Sour Soup is seriously delicious nutrition.
This soup is so good and so healthful that versions of it appear on websites like that of the American Institute for Cancer Research. Other healthy versions of Hot and Sour Soup appear in the American Heart Association’s Low Fat Low Cholesterol Cookbook, the American Dietetic Association’s Complete Food and Nutrition Guide, and in the American Diabetes Association’s cookbook, Diabetic Meals in 30 Minutes – or Less.
Healthy Foods Make Hot and Sour Soup so Tasty
The fresh vegetables in this soup are quickly and lightly cooked to provide an abundance of fiber, vitamins and minerals that make a healthy addition to any diet. But there’s much more than that to Hot and Sour Soup. This soup has anti aging, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant properties as well.
- Shitake Mushroom – Shitakes possess a compound known as lentinan which helps to support immune function by improving the ability of killer T cells to do their work. They also supply 18 amino acids (the building blocks of protein) – 7 of these amino acids are essential and must be supplied in the diet. Shitake mushrooms are also a rich source of B vitamins. According to Phyllis A. Balch, C.N.C., when they have been sundried they also contain high amounts of vitamin D. The author of Prescriptions for Nutritional Healing, Balch goes on to say, “Their effectiveness in treating cancer has been reported in a joint study by the Medical Department of Koibe [sic] University and Nippon Kinoko Institute in Japan.”
- Garlic – Garlic may prevent the formation of gastric ulcers by inhibiting the growth of helicobacter pylori bacteria in the stomach. It helps to improve immune function, lowers blood pressure and improves circulation. Garlic even helps to stabilize blood sugar levels and aids in lowering elevated serum cholesterol levels. Nutrients include calcium, folate, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, potassium, selenium, zinc, vitamin C and vitamins B1, B2 and B3.
- Ginger – Ginger possesses anti-inflammatory actions and has been found useful in reducing the pain of osteo and rheumatoid arthritis. It aids in colon cleansing, reduces spasms and cramping, and also improves circulation. This herb is an outstanding antioxidant with antimicrobial properties as well. It is useful in instances of fever, headache, hot flashes, morning sickness, and general indigestion, nausea or vomiting. In The World’s Healthiest Foods George Mateljan writes, “Ginger's anti-vomiting action has been shown to be very useful in reducing the nausea and vomiting of pregnancy, even the most severe form, hyperemesis gravidum, a condition which usually requires hospitalization. In a double-blind trial, ginger root brought about a significant reduction in both the severity of nausea and number of attacks of vomiting in 19 of 27 women in early pregnancy (less than 20 weeks).”
Recipe for Hot and Sour Soup
Ingredients:
- 6 cups vegetable stock or bouillon (chicken stock is also very good)
- 2 large cloves garlic, crushed and minced
- 1 tablespoon ginger root, peeled and minced
- ½ teaspoon black pepper, freshly ground
- 2 tablespoons tamari
- 4 Shitake mushrooms, stems removed and thinly sliced
- 1 cup bok choy, thinly sliced
- 1 medium carrot, julienned
- 1/3 cup snow peas, cut diagonally into thirds
- ½ pound firm tofu, cut into thin strips
- 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
- 1 tablespoon mirin
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch or arrowroot, stirred into ¼ cup cool water
- 1 egg, beaten
- ¼ cup fresh cilantro, chopped
- ½ cup green onion, chopped
- Red chili oil (optional)
Instructions:
- In a stock pot, bring the broth up to a gentle boil.
- Add garlic, ginger, black pepper and tamari, and continue to simmer for one minute.
- Add the mushrooms, bok choy, carrot, peas and tofu.
- Continue to simmer until the vegetables are tender, stirring occasionally.
- When the vegetables are tender stir in the vinegar, mirin, and cornstarch slurry, and cook until the soup is slightly thickened.
- Remove soup from heat and drizzle in the beaten egg. Stir once gently, in only one direction.
- Serve while hot, garnished with green onion and cilantro.
- For more intense heat, offer diners a little red chili oil to float in their soup.
Note:
To make this a heartier dish for serving as an entrée, consider adding mung bean sprouts, baby corn and bamboo shoots. Of course, adding a little chicken or pork would also serve to make this tasty soup even more filling.
For healthy aging do as the ADA and AHA suggest: Include this delicious Chinese Hot and Sour Soup as part of a healthy diet.
Anti-inflammatory, Antioxidant Hot & Sour Soup
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Shiitake Mushrooms Help Killer T Cells
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Garlic Stabilizes Blood Sugar, Lowers Cholesterol
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Garlic Prevents Ulcers, Kills Heliobacter Pilori
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Ginger for NVP, Nausea & Vomiting of Pregnancy
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