Soup's on
There were pork dumplings and shrimp egg rolls and tea-dyed eggs and all kinds of everything for the carnivores, but only almond cake for me.
So I decided to do the Chinese version of what my Italian grandmother would do in a situation like this: make minestrone.
Chinese Vegetable Soup is made basically by raiding the pantry and/or the fridge and throwing whatever veggies you have lying about into a pot with some broth, boiling it and spicing it up a bit until you have a warm, yummy soup. Americans are pretty obsessed with making sure that things "go together", most other cultures - more concerned about not wasting anything - throw things together in a hodge-podge fashion and end up with a great tasting dish every time.
Make this soup next time you need something fast and furious that has the taste of something you simmered all day.
Chinese Vegetable Soup
6 cups of vegetable broth1 onion, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tablespoon of minced gingerroot
1 teaspoon of soy sauce
1/2 cup of chopped water chestnuts
1/2 cup of bamboo shoots
3/4 cup of chopped broccoli florets
1 green bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 carrot, shredded
3/4 cup of sliced mushrooms
1 cup of sliced celery
1/2 cup chopped snow peas or frozen green peas
1/4 cup of shredded spinach
3 cups of cooked long-grain rice
black pepper to taste
3 scallions, thinly sliced
- Heat 1/2 cup of the broth in a big soup pot over high heat. When broth is boiling, add the onion, the garlic, and the gingerroot. Cook for 3 minutes.
- Add the soy sauce and the remaining 5 1/2 cups of broth. Bring it all to a gentle boil.
- Add the water chestnuts, the bamboo shoots, the broccoli, the green pepper, the carrot, the mushrooms, the celery, the snow peas, the spinach, the cooked rice and the black pepper.
- Bring to a simmer and cook for about 10 minutes.
- Garnish with the scallions and serve.
Vegan.
