Spring and Winter Day? Hot and Sour Soup!

The last few days have been gorgeous!  I'm talking highs in the upper 50's, sunshine, no coats, windows down, FLIP-FLOPS!  Today was the last day of this winter break.  This morning was beautiful, sunny, no need for a coat.  By lunch the wind had picked up, bringing in some grey clouds.  Raining, hailing, then snow on my way home from work, around 6.  At 8 o'clock the result was FIVE INCHES of snow, and still falling.
To match the weather I was in the mood for hot and sour soup for dinner.  This is by far one of my favorite Chinese foods.  I used a recipe from Chowhound as the basis for the soup.  I followed the directions exactly, just changed the ingredient list.
 This makes two servings for me.  I added the nutrition info to the bottom of this post.

Easy Chinese Hot and Sour Soup
4 cups of chicken broth
4 tablespoons soy sauce
1 full hand mung bean sprouts
1/2 cup canned bamboo shoots, drained and julienned
3/4 tablespoon Srirachi
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
2 tablespoons cornstarch and 2 tablespoons cold water
1 egg, beaten
4 oz firm tofu, cut into 1/4 inch dice
2 green onion stalks, diced (including green tops)
1/4 cup rice vinegar

-Bring chicken broth to a simmer in a 2-quart saucepan.
-Combine soy sauce, bean sprouts, bamboo shoots, srirachi and red pepper flakes, then add to broth.
-Simmer for five minutes.
-Combine two tablespoons of cornstarch with two tablespoons of cold water in a cup. Stir until mixture is smooth. Add cornstarch mixture to soup and stir well.
-Simmer for 2 or 3 minutes until soup is thickened.
-Beat egg in a cup until yolk and white are combined. Pour beaten egg slowly, in a fine stream into soup. Stir soup several times.
-Wait 30 seconds.
-Add tofu and green onions to soup. (I marinated the tofu in a bit of fish sauce) Stir well. Remove from heat.
-Add vinegar
-Stir a few times and serve.
Makes about 4 cups.

Nutrition Facts User Entered Recipe
2 Servings
Amount Per Serving
Calories		210.7
Total Fat		4.3 g
	Saturated Fat	1.0 g
	Polyunsaturated Fat	1.4 g
	Monounsaturated Fat	1.3 g
Cholesterol		102.5 mg
Sodium		4,275.2 mg
Potassium		690.0 mg
Total Carbohydrate		29.7 g
	Dietary Fiber	2.2 g
	Sugars	12.3 g
Protein		14.1 g

Leftovers Rock!

I love leftovers!  I love leftover pizza for breakfast the next morning (cold).  I love left over mashed potatoes, just add BBQ sauce and heat up for a fast easy breakfast, or lunch I suppose.  A little extra of any dinner makes a great next day lunch.  But occasionally I find I have only a little leftover of one piece of the dinner.  That is okay.  This is where soup, stoup come to play.
Just a little bit of leftover veggies?  Add them to a container in layers until you have enough to add to a soup, keep the container in the freezer.  You can also add the last little bit of broth in a can, or some leftover meat.  When you find soup making time, just through it in and add until it is just right.  My mom made some great soup growing up that was filling and yummy, and to be honest, cheap.  I made a little pot a few weeks ago with some potatoes that were growing on m counter.  I boiled the cubed potatoes, added ground turkey (I don't ever buy ground beef anymore), some badly freezer burned green beans, little tiny bit of corn (you know, the last bit of the package, leftover diced tomatoes, and a cube of chicken bullion.  This was so good, brought me back home to an easy fall Sunday dinner.
"Stoup", ever heard of it?  Rachel Ray describes stoups as "thicker than a soup but not quite a stew".  This is good if you have something chunky left over, large chopped onion, rough chopped tomatoes, or in my case some mango chutney.  I have been wanting to do something with this chutney, but haven't been quite sure what to do.  I had about a cup left.  Yesterday I cut up a chicken thigh, browned it in the pot, added the chutney and a half can of chicken broth, and let it simmer away.  I'm gonna gush again, the chutney is SO good.  This made a thick stoup that was flavorful and took 10 minutes.  If I was gonna do it again I might puree the chutney to make a creamier stoup, but it really didn't matter at all.
Easy, yummy, AND fast, gotta love it!

P.S. Gonna make some YUMMY deep dish pizza today and also will be posting my truffle making project tonight.