Vegetarian Hot and Sour Soup

Growing up in Beijing, soup was one of the must-have dishes on our dinner table everyday, even in the summer. It might be as simple as an Egg Drop Soup, or as luxurious as a Slow Simmered Oxtail Soup. It is a dish that connects all the elements on the table, like a glass of wine to a French family dinner. No matter if I’m traveling or living in a foreign country, I’d feel extreme comfort with a sip of hot soup, because it immediately brings me back home.

Vegetarian Hot and Sour Soup is one of those dishes that shows the simplicity and beauty of authentic Chinese cooking. Yes, the recipe might look quite long compared to my 5-Ingredient Chicken, but if you look through the ingredient list, you’ll find out that the recipe mostly uses dry products and pantry staples. In other words, this is a dish you can make even when your fridge is empty.

Yet the taste of the dish is nothing frugal. The silky soup bursts with a deep savory flavor that’s so appetizing and warms your whole body in a second. The veggies and tofu make give the dish substance which even allows it to be served as a main.

Where does that hot and sour flavor come from?

The answer is Chinkiang vinegar and white pepper powder.

Just to clarify, these are the standard ingredients for northern Chinese-style hot and sour soup. The Cantonese version does use other ingredients such as rice vinegar and chili oil.

Chinkiang vinegar (Zhenjiang vinegar, 镇江香醋) is a type of Chinese black vinegar. It is made with glutinous rice and wheat bran, and is aged until the color turns dark brown or inky black. It has a fermented malty taste and woody character that distinguishes it from the light colored and fruity rice vinegar.

Consider this ingredient the balsamic vinegar of Chinese cuisine, as it has a rich, pungent, and tart flavor, sometimes with a hint of sweetness.

There is no replacement for this ingredient, so go get a bottle now if you haven’t already. It is indeed a staple in any Chinese pantry and you’ll be addicted once you try it.

When combined with a spoonful of white pepper, you’ll be surprised how these two simple ingredients create such a potent, spicy taste with an earthy citrus zing.

Why use dried ingredients?

Dried lily flowers and dried shiitake mushrooms are the most common ingredients we use in daily cooking. This is because they last a long time in the pantry, are cheaper in cost, and they add amazing flavors and textures in a dish.

When rehydrating dried lily flowers and dried shiitake mushrooms, the re-hydrating liquid becomes a perfect vegetable broth. The marinating liquid might have a earthy or even muddy smell, but once cooked, this taste will disappear in favor of a rich savory aroma.

Unlike in French cooking, where chefs use expensive chicken or beef stock to make a soup, the Chinese soups that we serve daily are mostly made with water. That’s why the marinating liquid is so valuable, as it reduces the cost of a dish to a minimum.

If you rehydrate enough dried lily flowers and shiitake mushrooms, you can simply use the marinating liquid without needing extra vegetable stock.

On the other hand, if you do not have these dry goods on hands, you can skip them and use vegetable stock instead.

How to assemble your vegetarian hot and sour soup

1. How to create the soup base

Do not let the long recipe below scare you away. Vegetarian Hot and Sour Soup is a highly versatile dish that requires only 4 core ingredients:

1. Chinkiang vinegar (2 tablespoons)
2. White pepper powder (1 teaspoon)
3. Stock (6 cups)
4. Cornstarch slurry (3 tablespoons cornstarch + 1/4 cup water)

You see, you can use these ingredients to make the base of the soup and add whatever veggies you have on hand.

2. How to reduce prepping time

Like I mentioned above, if you do not have the dried goods (shiitake mushrooms and lily flowers), or do not have time to soak them, simply skip them and use vegetable stock instead.

3. What ingredients to use

Once you’ve nailed the soup base, you can tweak the recipe with many other ingredients. My favorite way of assembling a soup is by using:

1 protein (1 cup) + 1 to 2 ingredients to add texture (2 cups) + 1 to 2 fresh vegetables to add more nutrients (2 cups) + beaten eggs (optional)

For the protein, either tofu or other tofu products (such as deep fried tofu) are a great choice. You can use them to add volume to the soup and turn it into a more substantial dish.

To add texture to the soup and make it more interesting, I love choosing from bamboo shoots, baby corn, rehydrated wood ear mushrooms, and water chestnuts. These ingredients may be dried or from a can.

For the vegetables, the options are limitless — some delicious ingredients include Napa cabbage, spinach, kale, collard greens, green peas, and baby bok choy.

Lastly, I always add beaten egg to make the soup more scrumptious. You can skip this to make the dish vegan.

To make it easier to browse, here is a summary chart. Simply choose the vegetables you prefer to assemble your own vegetarian hot and sour soup!

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Protein

• Fresh tofu
• Deep fried tofu
• Other soy products

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Ingredients to add texture

• Bamboo shoots
• Baby corn
• Rehydrated wood ear mushrooms
• Water chestnuts
• Carrots (fresh or frozen)
• Corn (fresh or frozen)

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Fresh ingredients

• Napa cabbage
• Spinach
• Kale
• Collard greens
• Green peas
• Baby bok choy
• Broccoli
• Bean sprouts

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Are you ready to assemble your own Vegetarian Hot and Sour Soup? Hope you enjoy, and happy cooking!

If you give this recipe a try, let us know! Leave a comment, rate it (once you’ve tried it), take a picture and tag it @omnivorescookbook on Instagram! I’d love to see what you come up with.

Vegetarian Hot and Sour Soup (素酸辣汤)

By Maggie Zhu

4.84 from 6 votes

Prep Time: 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes minutes

Total Time: 25 minutes minutes

Servings: 4

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The prep time does not include rehydrating the dry ingredients. If you want to reduce prepping time, you can skip the dry ingredients altogether.

Ingredients 

Rehydrate

• 5 to 8 (about 1 tablespoon) dried wood ear mushrooms (*Footnote 2) (Optional)
• 1/3 cup shiitake mushrooms , dried
• 1 cup dried lily flowers , dried

Soup

• 2 tablespoons Chinkiang vinegar
• 1 teaspoon white pepper powder
• 6 cups vegetable stock (*Footnote 2)
• 1/2 block (8 oz / 226 g) firm tofu , cut to 1-cm (1/2-inch) cubes
• 1 can (5 oz / 141 g) bamboo shoots (about 1 cup)
• 1 tablespoon ginger , minced
• 1 tablespoon light soy sauce (or soy sauce)
• 1/2 tablespoon dark soy sauce (or soy sauce) (*Footnote 3)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups Napa cabbage , chopped
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 egg , beaten (*Footnote 4) (Optional)
• 2 teaspoons sesame oil , toasted
• 1/2 cup cilantro , chopped

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Instructions

Rehydrate

• To rehydrate wood ear mushrooms, shiitake mushrooms and lily flowers, gently rinse each with tap water, drain and add to a bowl, then add hot water to cover at least 1-inch deep. Rehydrate for 30 minutes to 1 hour, until the ingredients have turned tender.
• For wood ear mushrooms, remove tough ends if needed, and slice into stripes.
• For shiitake mushrooms, reserve marinating water, gently squeeze water from the mushrooms, remove stems and thinly slice.
• For lily flowers, reserve marinating water. Remove the tough ends of the lily flowers and slice to 5mm (2-inch) pieces if needed (*Footnote 5).

Soup

• Add Chinkiang vinegar and white pepper into a small bowl, mix well until the white pepper is completely dissolved.
• Prepare a medium-size pot, add 1 cup marinating water from the shiitake mushrooms, 1 cup marinating water from the lily flowers, and 4 cups vegetable stock into a pot. Cook over medium-high heat. Add rehydrated wood ear mushrooms, rehydrated lily flowers, rehydrated shiitake mushrooms, tofu, bamboo shoots, ginger, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, and salt to the pot. When the soup starts to simmer, add Napa cabbage and turn to medium-low heat. Cook until the Napa cabbage turns tender, 5 to 8 minutes.
• Whisk the cornstarch with 1/4 cup of water in a small bowl until cornstarch is fully dissolved. Slowly swirl the cornstarch slurry into the soup, and stir to thicken.
• Slowly swirl in the beaten egg with a fork against the edge of the bowl, and gently stir a few times to break up the eggs.
• Remove the pot from stove. Add the vinegar and pepper mixture and stir to mix well. (*Footnote 6) Carefully taste the soup. Add more salt if necessary. Garnish with cilantro and drizzle with sesame oil. Stir to mix well.
• Serve hot as a side or as a light main.

Ingredient Substitution Guide

Notes

1. Dried wood ear mushrooms will expand more than 10 times in size after soaking, so a small amount goes a long way. They do not have so much flavor and are added here to build texture. You can skip this ingredient without affecting the taste of the soup.
2. The vegetable stock includes the marinating water from the shiitake mushrooms and lily flowers. In reality you will only need 3 to 4 cups extra vegetable stock. If you do not use shiitake mushrooms or lily flowers, you will need 6 cups vegetable stock.
3. The dark soy sauce will add a beautiful dark brown color to the soup. You can use light soy sauce or ordinary soy sauce as a substitute.
4. Skip the eggs if you are making a vegan soup.
5. Depending on how the lily flowers are harvested, they might have a very tough woody end on the side of the stem. You can feel it by pressing with your fingers. You need to remove it (either by using a knife or a pair of kitchen shears). Some lily flowers might be very long, so you can halve them across.
6. It is very important to add the vinegar and white pepper at the end, because both ingredients lose their aroma if cooked for too long.

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