Gluten-Free Hot and Sour Soup

One of my favorite Chinese dishes is hot and sour soup. I feel like the look of the soup may turn people off, but it tastes amazing! One of the great things about making it yourself is that you can modify the ingredients to your liking. Since I avoid gluten, I made a gluten-free hot and sour soup, and I omitted the pork or chicken since I’m trying to eat less meat.

Since I like to make soup on Sundays to take for my lunches during the week, I attempted hot and sour soup for the first time a few weeks ago. I wanted to add a new recipe to my soup rotation (my usuals are chicken vegetable and vegetable beef). It took a couple tries modifying the ingredients, but it is a new favorite. The first time I made it I used vegetable broth (since I’m avoiding meat), but to be honest, I think it tastes much better with the chicken broth. I also got the more traditional ingredients from an asian grocery store (dried tree ear fungus and dried lily buds), but I liked it just the same substituting the dried tree ear fungus with shiitake mushrooms.

Although it sounds unappetizing, dried tree ear fungus is simply a mushroom native to China. You could easily substitute shiitake mushrooms, baby Bella, or button mushrooms for a more American version of the soup.

Shopping List

• 1 quart chicken or vegetable broth
• 2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar
• 2 tablespoons gluten-free soy sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 cup shredded bamboo shoots
• 12 dried lily buds
• 1/4 cup dried tree ear fungus (or any type of mushroom to your liking)
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• Chinese oil (to add spice)

Instructions

• Prepare the lily buds by covering with boiling water for at least 10 minutes. Prepare the dried tree ear fungus by covering with boiling water for about 20 to 30 minutes. Rinse and chop. Set aside both to add to the soup at the end.
• In a large saucepan on high heat, bring the chicken or vegetable broth to a boil. Once boiling turn down to medium/medium high heat then add the vinegar, soy sauce and salt.
• In a small bowl, whisk the cornstarch with 3 tablespoons of water, then add to the boiling broth, stirring constantly. Let the broth return to a simmer and cook until soup thickens (about 3 to 4 minutes).
• In another small bowl, whisk the eggs. Bring the soup to a full rolling boil, and using a circular motion, pour the eggs into the soup. Wait 5 seconds, then turn off the heat and stir the pot to distribute the eggs throughout the soup.
• Add the lily buds, tree ear fungus, bamboo shoots, and sesame oil. Simmer over medium heat for an additional 2 minutes.

Traditional Hot and Sour Soup also adds tofu, pork, and/or chicken. I left those ingredients out of my recipe because of preference (I’m trying to eat less meat), but my post was inspired by this original recipe that includes the traditional ingredients.