Vegan Taiwanese Hot and Sour Soup

One of our favourites, simple to make and absolutely authentic in flavour.

Originally inspired by Maggie Zhu of Omnivore’s Cookbook, we have tweaked this to veganify it.

This is a particular favourite of ours but found we really had to hunt around to find it in a restaurant as it’s not that common and particular less common to find a good one. We coincidentally found a very small Taiwanese restaurant near us in Sydney that makes one but it wasn’t vegan. So we were pretty relived to find a recipe we could doctor to our needs that tasted as good as the original.

Whenever we make this recipe always double it. Literally just double the ingredients however use the lesser of the cornstarch for double so about 4 tablespoons. If you want it thicker then try 5 but 6 is allot.

When we double it we use half of one of these blocks. We thinly slice the tofu into sheets and then thinly slice those sticks into matchstick thin pieces, these can then be chopped in half so they will now be about the size of a matchstick. I find it provides a good visual appearance and texture. You can cut it into 1cm cubes but this tofu is quite robust, which is one of its good points but if the pieces are too big then they can be a bit chewy.

If you want cubes you could use a firm tofu that will hold up better but will have a better mouth feel.

You can store the remaining unused block in a container in the fridge just make sure it is submerged under clean tap water.

To complement the matchstick like tofu, when I’m using King mushrooms, I cut these into 1cm cubes or a bit smaller. King mushrooms are very robust and are sometimes not dissimilar to a firm tofu. They can be a bit chewy so don’t make the pieces too big.

The sesame oil is optional. We don’t use oil as a rule. Sesame oil is a beautiful aromatic and has a unique flavour to it, however we don’t often add this in.

Recipe

Ingredients

• 2 teaspoons minced ginger
• 2 green onions chopped
• 2 tablespoons Shaoxing vinegar
• 1/8 teaspoon white pepper powder
• 6 cups vegetable stock
• 2cm strip hard tofu block 100g
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 2-3 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1-2 tablespoons of water to liquify the cornstarch
• 300g King, Oyster or shitake mushrooms (you can use others)

Optional Ingredients

• Bok Choi
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• vermicelli noodles – can add some bulk if you think it needs it
• yellow ramen noodles
• rice noodles
• Thinly sliced strips tofu sheet

Method

• Slice the tofu into thin sheets and then slice into matchsticks
• Add stock, ginger, white pepper, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar to pot and bring to boil
• Add mushrooms and tofu and boil for 5 minutes
• Add sesame oil (if using)
• Add a small amount of water to cornstarch to make a liquid
• Add most of the green onions and liquid corn starch to soup and stir through for 1-2 minutes
• Remove from heat
• Serve garnished with some green onions and sesame seeds

Notes

1. Careful with the noodles. All the noodles should be prepared separately by soaking in boiling water would be the norm. Than add them as you serve to the bottom of your bowl. The Yellow ramen noodles hold up well and slide around the soup.
2. Vermicelli noodles tend to clump a bit
3. Rice noodles will continue to degrade and if you are storing the remaining soup with rice noodles in it then they will continue to get softer and will liquify and thicken the soup
4. Greens are good. Don’t be shy, a finely chopped head of Bok Choi will get lost in this and not detract to much from the original. Alternatively have them as a side dish with a bit of Hoi Sin sauce.