Easy Chinese

Back when I was in high school, after I got my first car, my friends and I would pile into it and drive over to our favorite Chinese place to get lunch together every time we had a half day. That restaurant is no longer there, but it's still the best egg drop soup I've ever had.  I set out to recreate that soup today, and I'm pretty happy with what I came up with!

Egg Drop Soup

6 C chicken broth (or 6 cups water with 5 cubes chicken bouillon 

                                      or 1 1/2 Tbsp chicken bouillon powder)

1 tsp onion powder

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp black pepper

1 small can mushrooms, drained

1 cup frozen green peas

1/2 C carrots (cubed or matchstick)

2 eggs

(optional: cornstarch)

In a medium saucepan, combine the broth and spices and heat to boiling. Then add the peas and carrots and return to a boil. 

If you'd like the broth a bit thicker, like what you'd get at a restaurant, put 1 Tbsp cornstarch in a small bowl, and add a SMALL amount of the broth, stirring thoroughly so there will be no lumps. Continue adding small amounts of broth, stirring after each addition, until the mix is about the consistency of milk. Add this mix into the broth and continue boiling for a few minutes. (I only tried this with 2 tsp cornstarch, which wasn't enough to really thicken the soup much. You may find that you need more than 1 Tbsp.) *Never add cornstarch directly to the broth. It will clump and not dissolve, no matter how long you stir it.* Turn the heat down just until the soup stops bubbling.

In a small bowl, crack the eggs (being careful not to get any shell mixed in) and gently whisk the egg with a fork until the white and yolk are mixed. Traditionally, egg drop soup is made with the whites only, but I don't notice much difference, and then I don't have to separate the egg. (Yay, lazy cooking!)

Now comes the magic: stir the soup until the broth has a nice swirl going (you can continue to stir during this process if you don't need to, for instance, hold a camera at the same time) and slowly pour the egg into the broth. It doesn't have to be a drizzle, but if you dump it in all at once, you'll end up with a poached egg instead of the expected threads of egg. It doesn't show in the GIF, but if you do this in plain chicken broth, you can actually watch the egg "blossom" as it cooks.

You can stir in the mushrooms either before or after you add the egg, because they're already cooked and just need a minute to heat up. This recipe makes 2-3 bowls of soup, and made a nice lunch accompanied by egg rolls from the freezer section at our local grocery store.

My husband likes to throw in chopped pieces of chicken and cooked Ramen noodles. He's weird like that.  :)