What better than a bowl of piping hot soup?

My Mum always taught me, through example, that we hold a responsibility to each other to be present for others.  Moving away from home and not having family around, and especially because of where we live now, we are lucky enough to have other people we can call family, we have miniature pockets of family! 

These are the Aunts who have jumped in to create a real village that supports us, these Aunts who are not directly related to us, and you would never know, but who nonetheless take a special interest in our well-being.  

This is a recipe passed on verbally from one Aunt – AKA Mansura Lakhani.  I remember her making several huge containers of this soup when I had both my kids, it was so nourishing and wholesome for a new mother.   Nothing else shouts comfort than this age-old remedy of chicken soup! I’m sharing her recipe, slightly modified over the years of the classic and much-loved Indo-Chinese soup.

The ingredients that lend the heat in this soup are aromatics like -ginger and garlic, bell peppers (red and green), chopped green chilies, cabbage and carrots while vinegar adds to the sour flavor, then, of course, there is the quintessential soy sauce, for the umami flavor plus some turmeric!  

Mushrooms, corn kernels, button or Shiitake mushrooms, and some tofu are my additions to this soup.

Make it Vegan~ Vegetarian by omitting the Chicken and using a veggie bullion or stock, or Gluten-Free by leaving out the Soy or use Gluten-Free Soy.

Broth

• 6 cups water
• ½ lb. chicken or 1 chicken breast cut into cube (ratio does not really matter here omit chicken for a Veggie soup)
• 2 tsp crushed garlic
• 2 tsp grated ginger
• 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
• 1-2 Thai green chili cut diagonally 
• 2 tbsp. Vinegar
• 3 tbsp. Soy Sauce (leave out to make soup Gluten Free or use Gluten-Free Soy)
• 1 cube of Chicken or veggie Maggi or Knorr (if veggie then use 2 cubes)
• 1/2 black pepper powder
• 1/2 tsp Pink Himalayan salt  

Vegetables

• 1 cup shredded cabbages
• 1/2 cup green pepper cubed
• 1/2 cup red pepper thinly cubed
• ½ cup carrots julienned
• 1 Medium onion sliced 
• ½-cup shiitake or white mushrooms sliced (or use rehydrated shiitake and the broth)
• 3 tablespoons of yellow canned corn kernels
• 1/4 cup green beans cut into 1cm pieces
• 1 spring of green onion white for the soup and green for garnish
• ½ cup soft or medium tofu cut into 1 cm pieces

Slurry

• 4 tbsp. cornstarch  + 3 Tbsp. Water or use Arrowroot powder.

Chili Oil

• 2-3 tbsp. oil
• 2 tbsp. Red pepper flakes

Hot and Sour Soup

1. On medium heat a heavy bottomed soup pot and add all the ingredients for the BROTH and let it until the chicken is fully cooked and can be easily pulled apart with a fork or spoon.
2. Pull the chicken out with a slotted spoon and pull apart to shred, you should have at least 4cups of broth, if not add a cup of water now.
3. Meanwhile add the vegetables to the broth and let it cook, then add chicken back to broth
4. *You can also add the chicken and veggies at once to the pot that’s easier, then pull out the chicken, shred and return to the pot.
5. Simmer for another 8 minutes, at this point add tofu pieces if using
6. With the soup on a medium heat whisk in the cornstarch slurry, stir and turn the heat to a simmer to let it thicken.
7. Once soup thickens, turn off heat and adjust season, to add more soy, vinegar or spice.
8. In a small pan take about 2 tbsp. of oil and add red pepper flakes, warm though and pour over soup *or use a chili oil or Sriracha
   

Garnish with green spring onion leaves cut in a diagonal.