Tomato Noodle Soup – The Ultimate Comfort Food

This simple dish is the one that gets me through every winter and makes me feel better when I am sick.

Tomato noodle soup is the ultimate comfort food for me and the rest of my family. I cook this whenever I feel under the weather or just want to be lazy. The beauty of the soup is that it is the most versatile dish – you can add nearly anything left in your pantry or fridge. And you can prep and cook a whole meal in less than 30 minutes. Plus, the meal contains carbs, vegetables, and protein.

The purpose of this recipe is to merely serve as a guide. I hope you can use the principles here to cook a wonderful noodle soup with whatever ingredients you have on hand.

Tips & Tricks

Let’s look at the tips and options below to create the best comfort dish for you.

1. The highlight of the soup is the tomato base, which is similar to the idea of using a tomato sauce on pizza or pasta. You use some herb infused oil to cook the tomato into a paste, then use it in the soup broth. Here, I really love to add a handful of green onion to the tomato. It adds a delightful flavor that goes perfect with noodles.
2. Using pork or chicken stock can make the soup very rich. But you can skip this if you don’t have any stock at home. Adding 1 teaspoon chicken bouillon will enhance the flavor, too.
3. The pork ribs can be replaced with any leftover stew or braised meat you have, or can be skipped. The idea is to infuse the noodle soup with a rich meaty flavor, so the soup will be hearty and fulfilling. Plus, for people who need to eat meat for every meal (like me), this is the perfect place to add it.
4. Remember to add a spoonful of gravy from the stew. The tomato base goes well with almost any flavor of stew, no matter whether Asian or Western style. Remember to save the gravy next time you finish the meat in a stew. It can add tons of flavor here, and might even allow you to skip using stock in the soup.
5. The udon noodles can be replaced by frozen wontons or dumplings. In this case, you really don’t need to add much meat to the dish, because wontons and dumplings can be quite filling.
6. A great way to make a delicious vegetarian broth is to add shiitake mushrooms into the soup after the the tomato paste is added. They add a great flavor to the broth and I love their texture! Of course, you can also use vegetable broth to turn this soup into a vegetarian one. In this case, I recommend you use vegetarian wontons or dumplings instead of noodles, to make the dish more satisfying.
7. The eggs are optional but a half cooked egg goes best with noodles. A yolky egg makes every dish taste better, doesn’t it?
8. The baby bok choy is optional, and you can use spinach and gai lan (Chinese broccoli) as alternatives. In this case,you should blanch the vegetables beforehand, because these veggies take longer time to get cooked through.

If you’re feeling fancy, you might want to cook some handmade wontons. I used a different broth in that recipe, but these wontons go great with the tomato soup, too! My point here, is that the tomato based soup goes well with a lot of combinations, so feel free to use your imagination and create your own version of the ultimate comfort dish!

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Chinese Tomato Noodle Soup

By Maggie Zhu

5 from 8 votes

Prep Time: 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes minutes

Servings: 2 to 4 servings

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This simple dish is the one that gets me through every winter and makes me feel better when I am sick.

Ingredients 

Noodle soup

• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 2 scallions , sliced, white and green parts divided
• 1 tablespoon minced ginger
• 4 tomatoes , diced
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 4 cups chicken stock
• 1 1/2 tablespoons light soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• Salt to taste
• 8 oz dried udon noodles (or other wheat noodles)
• 2 heads baby bok choy , sliced into bite-sized pieces
• 2 to 4 eggs
• 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil

Protein options (Optional, footnote 1)

• Instant Pot shredded chicken
• Braised pork ribs
• Chinese beef stew

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Instructions

• Heat oil in a medium dutch oven (or pot) over medium heat until it shimmers. Add scallion whites and ginger. Stir and cook to release fragrance, 30 seconds or so.
• Add the tomato and turn to medium-high heat. Cook and stir until the tomato starts to break down, 5 minutes or so. Add tomato paste. Keep cooking and stirring for 1 minute.
• Pour in chicken stock, soy sauce, oyster sauce and sugar. Bring to a boil and turn to low heat. Taste the tomato soup and adjust seasonings by adding more salt, if needed. Cover to keep hot.
• Meanwhile, boil a big pot of water and cook the noodles according to package directions. Once done, transfer the noodles to a colander, rinse with cold tap water to stop cooking, drain and portion into two serving bowls.
• Blanch the baby bok choy in the same pot of water until turning tender but still a little crisp. Transfer to each serving bowl.
• Poach the eggs in the same pot until desired doneness. Add the tomato soup to each bowl and top with the poached egg. Garnish with scallion greens and add a drizzle of sesame oil to finish. Top with your preferred protein, if desired. Serve hot.

Ingredient Substitution Guide

Notes

1. You can keep the noodle soup bowl simple and serve it as a side dish or staple without any other meat. For a more filling one-bowl meal, you can use almost any type of leftover meat such as rotisserie chicken, roast beef or pulled pork. I like to use my Instant Pot chicken for a healthy meal. My mom’s favorite way to make the soup is to use leftover stew meat. She also adds some stew broth into the soup (and uses less soy sauce), making it even richer.
2. The recipe yields 4 servings as a light side dish, and you can increase the egg number from 2 to 4 for each bowl. You can also make it a main dish by adding a meat topping. In this case, the recipe yield 2 big servings. 

Nutrition

Serving: 1serving, Calories: 319kcal, Carbohydrates: 46.9g, Protein: 14.4g, Fat: 9.5g, Saturated Fat: 1.8g, Cholesterol: 93mg, Sodium: 1580mg, Potassium: 678mg, Fiber: 5.3g, Sugar: 11g, Calcium: 101mg, Iron: 4mg

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