Hot and Sour Soup – Quick, Easy ad Healthy Recipe

The Hot and Sour Soup is one of the most comforting foods to eat in the morning for breakfast, as a pre-afternoon snack, evening snack, or paired with your dinner. It goes well with rice, bread, noodles, ramen, fried chicken, fried paneer, and a lot of other things, making it the most versatile dish in your kitchen.

The dish is loaded with vegetables, is light on calories, and can be modified to suit both vegetarian and non-vegetarian toppings. This makes it one of the most versatile dishes. Its high nutrition, low masala content make it suitable even for diabetics and people with high cholesterol (like me).

• Preparation Time: 10 Minutes
• Cooking Time: 15 Minutes.
• Total Time: 25 to 30 Minutes

Suggested in Low Masala Recipes: Letha Recipe – Western Odisha’s Mix Vegetable Stew

Ingredients

For 4 bowls of Hot and Sour soup. The following ingredients serve 4 persons.

• Assorted vegetables, cut into 1/4 inch cubes.
  • Carrot – 1 medium-sized
  • Onion – 1 medium-sized
  • Celery Sticks – 1 to 2
  • Cabbage – 1/4th of small-sized, shredded
  • Cauliflower – 1/4th
  • Green Peas (fresh or frozen) – half cup
  • Corn Kernels (fresh or frozen) – 1/4th cup, can also use Sweet Corn if non-diabetic
  • Baby Corn – 1 to 2
  • Coriander Stems – 5 grams approximately
• 1-2 Grains of Black Pepper (suitable for rainy or winter season)
• 1-2 tablespoons oil or butter (recommended not to use ghee)
• 2-4 cloves of Garlic
• Salt to taste
• 250 ml of water

Sauces

• Tomato Sauce – 1 tablespoon
• Green Chilli Sauce – 1 teaspoon
• Red Chilli Sauce – 1 teaspoon (optional)
• Vinegar – half teaspoon
• Dark Soya Sauce – 2 tablespoons

Please note that for measurement purposes, 1 tablespoon equals 7.5 ml and one teaspoon equals 4 ml.

Seasoning

Use any one of the below.

• Fried paneer
• Fried tofu
• Fried chicken

You can also add half a teaspoon of oregano seasoning or roasted sesame seeds for extra flavour.

Recipe for Hot and Sour Soup

1. Heat a deep pan (kadhai or wok). Make sure that the pan is hot before adding anything else.
2. Add oil or butter. If you are adding just butter, ensure that some oil is added before it to prevent the butter from burning.
3. Add crushed garlic cloves and let them turn brown. We want the oil to absorb the flavor of garlic.
4. Add onions first, as they will prevent other vegetables from sticking to the pan.
5. Add all the vegetables and toss them to cover them evenly with oil.
6. At this stage, if you want your vegetables to be crunchy, add salt at the last. If you like soft vegetables, add salt at this stage.
7. Add crushed pepper if you want your dish to be hot. Or else, you can add a slit green chilli for mild hotness.
8. Cook for 5-10 minutes till the vegetables reduce in volume by half.
9. Add 1 tablespoon tomato sauce (not puree), 1 teaspoon green chilli sauce, a half-teaspoon vinegar, and 2 tablespoons dark soya sauce.
10. Mix well and cook for 2 minutes.
11. Add 2 teaspoons of corn starch (use less for diabetics) and mix it in one glass (250 ml) of water.
12. Mix well and wait for the rolling boil to appear as shown in the video below.
13. Once this rolling boil appears, wait till the corn starch loses its colour and the soup gets a dark colour from the soya sauce.

Serve hot with rice, noodles, ramen (maggie), or with slightly toasted bread.

You can also add fried paneer, fried tofu, or fried chicken pieces. Or you can add anything tasty that you think would go better with this soup.