Bowls of Plenty

Want to see what I’ve been eating like crazy for the past few days?

Chinese-inspired Vegan Hot and Sour Soup
(gluten-free, dairy-free, low-calorie)

Broth base flavored with: Rapunzel no salt added vegan vegetable bouillon

Organic tofu by Nasoya:

Ingredients:

• One 14oz block extra firm organic tofu, pressed to remove excess water; julienne cut
• 14 cups water
• 3 vegan no salt added vegetable bouillon cubes
• 3 cups broccoli slaw (julienned broccoli + carrots + red cabbage)
• 2 cups beans sprouts
• 4 large stalks celery, sliced thinly
• 3 TBSP organic palm oil shortening
• 3 TBSP coconut aminos (or reduced sodium soy sauce)
• 1 teaspoon white pepper or to taste
• 1 TBSP reduced sodium sea salt or to taste
• 1 teaspoon Tabasco sauce or to taste
• 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes or to taste
• 3 TBSP rice wine vinegar
• 3 TBSP red wine vinegar
• 1/4 cup distilled white vinegar
• 1 TBSP apple cider vinegar
• 5 cups fresh kale, optional
• 3 TBSP chili powder or to taste
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic

Method:

1. In a large pot, add in palm shortening on medium heat; add in broccoli slaw, diced celery, and bean sprouts; drizzle with 1 TBSP coconut aminos (or soy sauce) and sea salt, cook until softened, stirring often.
2. Press as much water out of block of tofu as possible before julienning (slim slices). Not necessary for pieces to be uniform; my pieces were random sizes.
3. Add in water, bouillon cubes, all vinegars, 2 TBSP coconut aminos (or soy sauce), sea salt to taste, Tabasco, crushed red pepper flakes, white pepper, minced garlic, and chili powder. Stir well and let simmer for a few minutes, then add in julienned tofu; cover and bring to a boil; add in kale, stir and cover, and let simmer on low-medium for about 45 minutes; stir now and them. Reduce heat if necessary.

Notes: Add more water for a thinner soup; less for thicker stew-like dish. Can also be cooked in a crock pot.

Makes 12-16 servings

This was SO delicious! One caveat: You must like hot and sour. If you do, this soup is for you. I loved it so much that I found myself eating it right out of the pot and right out of the fridge—cold! LOL. It’s so yummy.

I remained civilized for dinner and had a bowl of it with two other bowls filled with veggie goodness.

Hugh Jass Salad, hot and sour soup, and a smallish roasted sweet potato with butter and Fifty50 maple-flavored syrup.

In the lime green mixing salad bowl: Mixed leafy greens, baby cuke, plum tomato, onion, 2 slices Hannaford cheddar cheese, extra virgin avocado oil, red wine vinegar, sea salt, black pepper, and LOTS of garlic powder—my new favorite salad topper. Mmm!

Yum! I love variety that includes oodles of veggies. So GOOD!

Our landlord dropped a bomb on us late Friday night: They plan to sell the house… that we’re living in. They can’t afford it any longer. Wonderful. I guess three houses was a bit excessive, huh? Looks like a move is going to be in our future. Though, in this market, I don’t see this house selling very quickly. But, can’t count on that. Time to start looking at our other options. Our market is very dry around here. So many homeowners are upside down that they don’t even bother put their house on the market because prices are fallen so much. This sucks for us because we can’t find what we want! Everything we want is either WAY out of our price range or has a fatal error; e.g., 4000SF with a kitchen the size of a Crackerjack box. Upstate NY, especially our area, had a lot of development in the mid 2000s, but not nearly as much as other areas of the country like Atlanta, Florida, etc. So, we still have a rather limited selection with a TON of houses 50+ years old, which isn’t what we want. The next few months should be interesting, to say the least!

It’s currently 2:37am and we just had a business meeting. We’re discussing future plans for brick and mortar businesses. My head is going to explode. Time for more soup.

Do you like hot and spicy? How about sour? I love both, but if I had to go with one or the other, I’d choose sour. Vinegar all the way, baby! heh

Tagged as: bean sprouts, broccoli slaw, Chinese food, hot and sour soup recipe, recipes, salads, soup, sweet potatoes, tofu, vegan, vegetarian, veggies