Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Trim-It-Down Tuesday: Hot and Sour Soup


Today's soup is another slow-cooker recipe I found on Stephanie O'Dea's site (which is full of amazing recipes!). Since it is meat-less and has tofu in it, I decided to try it out on a night when Chris wasn't home as he probably would have refused to eat it. But, even though I've never cooked with tofu before, I thought it sounded delicious and low-calorie. A great combination in my book!
Ingredients
--1 cup cubed firm tofu (I used one full package that I got at Kroger)
--2 cups chicken broth
--2 cups water
--1 package of sliced mushrooms
--1 can bamboo shoots
--1 can sliced water chestnuts
--2 tablespoon soy sauce
--1 teaspoon sesame oil
--2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
--1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes **
--green onion for garnish
Directions
Combine everything in your slow cooker. I used a 5 quart, and I think it was filled about 2/3 of the way full.
Cook on low for 7-9 hours or high 4-5.
Taste. If you need more of the sour flavor, add more rice wine vinegar. If you need more of the hot flavor, add more red pepper flakes.**
Garnish with sliced green onion.
** Warning: Do NOT add more than the 1/4-teaspoon of red pepper flakes at the beginning. I, being a lover of all things spicy, didn't bother to measure the red pepper flakes when I added them. After reading that Stephanie actually added more to her soup (of course, AFTER it had cooked), I just though "Eh, can't be too spicy", so I added about 2 shakes of the little plastic spice container when I was assembling the soup in the morning. BAD IDEA! The soup was so spicy, I had to add another 2 cups of chicken broth to dilute it. And even then, it was still spicy. Please know that if I thought it was spicy, then more than likely your mouth will be on fire. So, in conclusion, don't be a fool like me - take it easy on the red pepper flakes.
Other than that, the soup was really really good! Tasted like restaurant soup, albeit not as salty. It wasn't too mushroom-y, and honestly the tofu didn't bother me - it wasn't too noticeable. This soup would be great to have if you had a cold, or didn't feel well. If you want it to be more "filling", pour it over a little bit of cooked rice. That was what I did for leftovers, which were yummy.

7 comments:

Christin said...

Guess I'm too much like my brother...no meat...not up my alley but Alan would be in heaven!!

Ellen Mint said...

I love hot and sour soup.

And red pepper flakes can be a real doozy. I let my husband add some to chili once, holy hell it was pretty much inedible.

Linda said...

Yum. Sounds delicious. I'll have to try it. I bet it would be yummy with noodles too.

High-Heeled Foot in the door said...

Oh that sounds delish! I've never had it before, but have heard great things about it.

Thanks for sharing!

LindsB said...

Ive been eating soup everyday for lunch lately, I should try this one out. Sounds delish!

MFAMB said...

i LOVE hot and sour soup and i just bought some tofu and wasn't sure what i was going to do with it...well now i KNOW!!!!

Krista said...

I need to get a slow cooker. I had one, but I broke it a few years ago. I will have to get one and then try this recipe!

Wade will eat "meatless" recipes with tofu or soy when I'm cooking ... as long as I "let" him have a steak or whatever when he's craving it! (I could care less if he eats meat, but I am not cooking two meals so that I can be meat-less and he can eat meat).

 
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