Vegan Hot & Sour Soup

      

 

Hot and sour soup is one of my favorite soups 

There is a vegetarian Chinese restaurant in Philadelphia Chinatown that makes an awesome gluten free Hot and Sour Soup ( I bring my own gluten free soy sauce)! But, it takes me a 1/2 hour to drive to Philly and an additional 1/2 hour to find a parking space near Chinatown!

For years I have been searching for a good gluten free hot and sour soup recipe that I can make at home; I think I finally found one.


Me (in black) and My Cousin Harriet (in red)
 Ready to Eat a Beautiful Dinner at Her House In Naples, Florida during Xmas Vacation 

I teach at a prestigious private prep high school near Princeton, NJ which has 40% boarding students from all over the United States and the world. We have a beautiful formal dining hall that serves fabulous lunches to the staff and students daily. They use fresh wholesome ingredients, nothing is fried, and they make many ethnic specialties. 

Lunch is a buffet and it's like eating at a wedding with all kinds of stations for stir fry, deli stations, soup stations, salad bar, main courses and dessert stations. It is amazing because they serve over 700 people/day and this wonderful lunch is included in our contract. (Tuition, room, and board is over $40,000 a year to attend this high school.Tuition for local non-boarding students is $28,000 year for high school) 

Last week the chefs made a Vegetarian Hot and Sour Soup .
Truthfully, I didn't expect it to taste authentic, but I was pleasantly surprised. It was so good, I did something I never thought of doing in the fourteen years I have been eating lunches in our school dining hall.  I asked for the recipe!

The following recipe was given to me by the head chef,  "Joe" . So I'm calling the recipe what else, but-

Joe's Vegetarian Hot and Sour Soup

Ingredients
4 cups of flavorful vegetable broth
4 cups boiling water
2 TBSP gluten free soy sauce
1 TBSP toasted sesame oil
1-2 TBSP hot sauce to taste
1/2 cup green onion , chopped
1 pound tofu, drained and sliced in matchsticks
2 containers fresh white mushrooms, sliced in half and then thin
salt and pepper to taste
1 TBSP non GMO cornstarch
1/2 cup water

Directions:

In an 8 qt soup pan, saute green onions, mushrooms, and tofu for a few minutes in olive oil spray. Add hot vegetable broth, boiling water, gluten free soy sauce, and hot sauce, Cook for 10 minutes . When soup is done, mix 1 tablespoon of organic non GMO cornstarch in 1/2 cup water in a separate bowl. Next, slowly add the cornstarch mixture to the cooked soup and stir the soup until it is slightly thickened. Season with toasted sesame oil, salt and pepper.

Step by Step Pictures




Get some fresh green onions or scallions ( These were beauties at the Asian Market)




Chop scallions

Cut mushrooms in half and slice ( you can mix other varieties of mushrooms as well)







Add chopped scallions, mushrooms, and tofu to a large skillet




Saute mushrooms, scallions, and tofu



Add broth,  boiling water, sesame oil, hot sauce, gluten free soy sauce, and bamboo shoots if desired.  Cook covered on low simmer for about 10 minutes. Add cornstarch and water, stir and allow to sit for about 1/2 hour before serving for flavors to mingle. Tastes good the next day too.



Enjoy


My Notes: The tuition prices reflect 2011 prices for the school. This recipe published on 10/24/11