This is a delicious Asian inspired veggie soup to spice up your life. It’s made with home made chicken broth is light in carbs, low in calories, big in flavour and super healthy.
Anyone who knows me knows I am big on using home-made stocks. Making your own has so many benefits, but first and foremost, home-made stocks form the basis for an array of amazing foods. They also taste better than anything you can buy and they’re 100% natural, because you control what goes in.
Scroll below the recipe for helpful tips to make the most delicious soup.
Asian inspired veggie soup
Big on flavour and low in calories, this is a wonder soup for the soul
2
bowls10
minutes20
minutesClick for the screen to stay active while you cook
You will need
800 ml 800 home-made chicken or vegetable stock
2 2 whole star anise
1 1 cinnamon stick (about 10cm in length)
1 tsp 1 grapeseed oil
1 1 onion, halved and then sliced thinly lengthways
4 4 garlic cloves, crushed
2 2 Birdseye chills, sliced thinly (optional)
2 tsp 2 fresh grated ginger
3 3 mushrooms, thinly sliced
1 cup 1 broccoli florets
1/2 cup 1/2 broccoli stems, peeled and sliced thinly
About a 5cm length of zucchini, sliced then cut across to julienne
1/4 cup 1/4 frozen peeled edamame beans
1 1 bunch bok choy, washed and sliced
1 1 spring onion, white and green part, sliced thinly
4 tbsp 4 soy sauce
2 tsp 2 hoisin sauce
2 tbsp 2 shaoxing cooking wine
1 tbsp 1 rice wine vinegar
1 tsp 1 palm sugar (or 1/2 tsp white or light brown sugar)
1 tsp 1 sesame oil
Here’s what to do
- Heat the chicken stock in a saucepan while preparing the vegetables.
- Add the grapeseed oil in a wok or deep frying pan, then add the onion. Sauté a couple of minutes without letting it burn, then add the garlic, chills and mushrooms.
- Stir fry for a minute being careful not to let the garlic burn, then add the ginger, broccoli florets and stems, edamame beans and zucchini.
- Add the sauces (except the sesame oil) and palm sugar and stir fry until vegetables are just tender, then lastly add the white stems from the bok choy.
- Taste the vegetables and add or adjust sauces and seasoning to suit your taste.
- Spoon the vegetables into deep noodle bowls and top with the sliced tofu and spring onions, then ladel the broth over the lot, straining out the cinnamon stick and star anise.
- Splash some sesame oil on the top and serve.
Tips and tricks
- Oil: Use any neutral oil that can withstand high heat.
- Chills are optional, so if you don’t like heat, just leave them out.
- You could cook some noodles or zoodles and make a noodle/zoodle soup.
- The source of protein is your choice. If you don’t want to use tofu, stir fry some prawns and set aside to add with the spring onions or use cooked shredded chicken breast or wafer thin sliced beef. Then just pour the hot broth over the top.
- Vegetable stock makes this a perfect soup for vegans.
- The heat from the broth will warm the tofu. You could use firm tofu and stir fry that with the vegetables or even tofu puffs would work.
Delicious Asian Inspired Soup – some helpful tips
Use home-made stock
This soup needs my home-made stock to make it great. Don’t even think about using store bought stuff, unless it’s from a reputable supplier who makes their own.
I make stock from carcasses I buy fresh from my local market. They’re incredibly cheap to buy – so much more economical than buying stock too. I cook large batches at a time and then freeze it in a range of different sized containers. This way, I can just take out what I need for a particular meal.
I have several containers about 400ml in volume. That’s perfect for making soup for one, simply by adding fresh vegetables and delicious flavours. This Asian-style recipe is just one variety and you’ll find that if you experiment, it’s easy to do.
The soup shared in this recipe has a Chinese inspired flavour profile, yet you can choose any flavours you wish. Once you have the basic technique down, just have a play with the flavours you like.
Vegan?
If you use vegetable stock instead of a meat stock, you’ll have the perfect soup for vegans that still tastes amazing. Whatever stock you use is up to you – but do try to make your own!
One more thing is you can make the most of what you have in the fridge and store cupboard. There’s no need to run out and buy special ingredients, just use what you have.
So without further ado, here’s my delicious Asian inspired soup with home made chicken broth. Or as I also call it, my anything goes soup with home-made chicken stock.
