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I’m back!!!!! After a busy week, I’m back to the blog! This time, I’m gonna introduce a recipe of a Vietnamese vegetarian soup that is quite common in our traditional daily meals.
(Source: TNKTravel)
In my home country, Vietnam, a family meal usually consists of at least 3 dishes: a main dish with meat, a side dish with vegetables and a bowl of soup. These three dishes are served with hot cooked rice. A wealthier family would add more dishes. A few days ago, I uploaded a Vietnamese Sweet & Salty chicken, and I have mentioned that the dish is considered as main dish in our daily meal. And now, I’m gonna show you one of the popular soup that we usually have in our daily meals: SOFT TOFU soup (in Vietnamese we called it “Canh đậu hũ non”).
Generally, there are 2 common versions of soft tofu soup: tofu soup with tomatoes and tofu soup with garlic chives. Both are easy to cook, bring out unique-sweet taste of the soft tofu and vegetables. I prefer the tofu soup with tomatoes so I will show this recipe everyone. No need to say, I learnt it from my grandmother!
Ingredients: (for 3-4 servings)
- Soft tofu: 1 block (available at Asian supermarkets)
- Cooking oil: 1/2 tablespoons
- Garlic: 3 cloves
- Vegetable stock/broth: 1 L
- Mushroom: 200-250 grams (any variety)
- Tomato: 4 Roma tomatoes
- Seasoning: 1 teaspoon of mushroom bullion seasoning powder or 1 teaspoon of salt & 1/2 teaspoons of sugar
- Black/white pepper, green onions and cilantro as garnish when serving
Preparation:
- Chop garlic and cut the tomatoes into wedges. Don’t forget to remove the seeds of the tomatoes. Thin-slice the mushroom(s).
- In a 2 qt. sauce pan/pot, add 1/2 tablespoons of cooking oil and bring to medium heat. Add the garlic and tomatoes to the hot saucepan/pot, stir-fry until the tomatoes are softened (about 10 minutes). This step is to achieve the nice orange color of the final soup.
- Add the vegetable stock/broth to the saucepan/pot and bring to boil
- Add the mushroom(s) to the boiling soup and season with 1 teaspoon of seasoning powder or 1 teaspoon of salt + 1/2 teaspoons of sugar. Bring to boil again.
- While waiting, cut the soft tofu into thick slices then add to the boiling soup. Wait for it to be boiled again (around 5 minutes) then turn off the heat.
- Serve in small bowls, top with fresh cilantro
Total time: 20 minutes
Notes: This soft tofu soup could be made with chicken broth and substitute the mushrooms with dried shrimps, but I found that it tastes best with mushrooms so I would suggest the vegetarian version.
Vietnamese soft tofu soup
Ingredients
- 1 block Soft tofu available at Asian supermarkets
- ½ tbsp Cooking oil
- 3 cloves Garlic
- 1 L Vegetable stock/broth
- 200-250 grams Mushroom any variety
- 4 Roma tomatoes
- 1 tsp Mushroom bullion seasoning powder
- Black/white pepper, green onions and cilantro as garnish when serving
Instructions
- Chop garlic and cut the tomatoes into wedges. Don’t forget to remove the seeds of the tomatoes. Thin-slice the mushroom(s).
- In a 2 qt. sauce pan/pot, add 1/2 tablespoons of cooking oil and bring to medium heat. Add the garlic and tomatoes to the hot saucepan/pot, stir-fry until the tomatoes are softened (about 10 minutes). This step is to achieve the nice orange color of the final soup.
- Add the vegetable stock/broth to the saucepan/pot and bring to boil
- Add the mushroom(s) to the boiling soup and season with 1 teaspoon of seasoning powder or 1 teaspoon of salt + 1/2 teaspoons of sugar. Bring to boil again.
- While waiting, cut the soft tofu into thick slices then add to the boiling soup. Wait for it to be boiled again (around 5 minutes) then turn off the heat.
- Serve in small bowls, top with fresh cilantro
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