Vegan soup of the Spring

Vietnamese version (bản tiếng Việt): click here!

Spring time in AZ! Even though it’s spring but weather is still cold outside so I came up with a soup to warm ourselves and has a colorful look to suit the color scheme of the Spring.

For this vegan soup, I utilize different types of dried and fresh mushrooms that I have at home. Since I have some carrot skin, garlic skin, onion skin, spring onion heads, I made my own vegetable stock for the soup (check out the broth here). Also, if you can have eggs, feel free to make egg patterns for the soup.

Ingredients: (for 2 servings)

• Dried White mushroom: 1/2 of whole mushroom
• Dried (or fresh) Shiitake mushroom: 2 whole mushrooms
• Dried black mushroom: 1 whole mushroom
• Enoki mushroom: 1/2 of the pack
• Vegetable stock/broth or cold water: 1 L
• Carrots: 1/4 cup
• Green peas: 1/4 cup
• Cut corn: 1/4 cup
• Tapioca flour: 1 – 1.5 tablespoons (can be adjusted)
• Seasoning: 1 teaspoon of seasoning powder + 1 teaspoon of sugar + 1/2 teaspoon of salt (can adjust to taste)
• Spring onions, cilantro as garnish; black/white pepper and sesame oil when serving (would be great if some chili oil is added)

Preparation:

• Soak the dried mushrooms in water for 30 minutes to rehydrate them (may use warm water to cut down the time). When the dried mushrooms are fully rehydrated, chop them into small pieces (even with fresh shiitake mushroom).
• With fresh enoki mushrooms, rinse the mushroom with cold water then cut into short pieces (about 1.5-2 in.). The long, fibrous texture of this mushroom will create pattern for the soup instead of using eggs.
• If you use whole carrot, this step is for chopping the carrots into small cubes.
• In a 2qt. saucepan (that was what I used), add the vegetable stock/broth (or just cold water if you don’t have one) and put on boil on high heat.
• When the water/stock/broth boiling, reduce the heat to medium and add all the carrots, cut corn, green peas to the pot.
• When it boils again, add all of the chopped mushrooms to the pot and make a quick stir to make sure all the mushrooms are immersed in the hot soup.
• Season the soup when it boils again after adding mushrooms.
• In a small bowl, mix tapioca flour with 2 tablespoons of water till homogenized then add to the boiling soup with constant stirring so that the soup could be thickened. Continue stirring until the thickened soup starts bubbling then turn off the heat and the “Vegan soup for the Spring” is ready!
• When serving, top with freshly chopped cilantro and spring onions, sesame oil, black pepper,… and some chili oil if you want some hot taste!

Total time: 50 minutes

That’s it for this colorful recipe! Ever since I made this, I love it even more than my crab soup, hahaha…! Hope you guys would also enjoy it, like me!