Egg Drop Soup with Veggies

Egg Drop Soup was the first soup I made from scratch on my own. I had been paging through the Joy of Cooking (the only cookbook I owned at the time) to try to figure out what I could make with a limited budget and a limited trip to the grocery store (it was hovering around zero outside and I didn’t want to leave my dorm if I could help it). Luckily, I stumbled upon a recipe for Egg Drop Soup and the rest, as they say is history.

This version derivates from the original quite a bit – I added sliced mushrooms, garlic, and spinach to beef it up. This recipe is low-fat but stuffed with iron, protein, and taste.  It's the perfect soup with a cold wintery day as well as the morning when you wake up with a pounding headache and no amount of tea is making you feel better.

Egg Drop Soup with Vegetables

This soup doesn’t reheat well – the egg gets kind of gross and rubbery. If you’d like to make this ahead of time, cook everything except the egg and spinach and then refrigerate or freeze. Bring back to a boil, then follow directions in the last paragraph.

If you like a thicker soup, you can add a teaspoon of cornstarch to the broth before you add the egg. I don’t mind a thinner consistency, but if you’re after a taste closer to your favorite Chinese take-out then feel free to add it in!

Ingredients:

1/2 tablespoon olive oil

1 teaspoon fresh ginger, chopped finely

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/3 cup fresh mushrooms, thinly sliced

2-3 green onions, chopped

1 cup fresh spinach

1 cup broth

1/2 cup water

1 teaspoon soy sauce (optional)

1 large egg, mixed

Salt and pepper to taste

Equipment:

Small pot

Heat oil over medium high heat. Add oil and mushrooms and sauté a minute, add the green onions and ginger and continue to cook. Add the garlic and cook an addition minute, making sure to stir so the garlic doesn’t burn. Add broth and soy sauce and bring to a gentle boil.

Whisk egg in a separate bowl. Stir soup with a spoon, then (while soup is still mobile) slowly drizzle egg into the soup. The slower you go, the thicker the egg ribbons. Turn heat off and add spinach. Allow spinach to wilt, about a minute, then serve!

Serves 1