Tomato Egg-Drop Soup

So my friend Sahana (who has been helping me proof-read my blog and championing salt.pepper.chili) calls me early one morning and comes straight to the point (we have always been like that with each other, having known each other for 14 years now!) - "you know what, your blog has just 1 soup and a very few sandwich recipes! You need to have more!". And this got me thinking. Why had I ignored something, which most of us love, but end up eating completely packaged or processed version most of the time. We feel we are giving our kids (and ourselves too) something really healthy, but are packaged/ canned soups really as healthy as you think? With all the preservatives and salt content, well... probably not! 

So next time you feel like having a nice healthy soup, take some fresh ingredients and make your own. And you will not regret it! I will be posting a few of my favorite, quick and easy recipes!So lets start with a very popular chinese style soup we all love! The sweet, tangy soup with this lovely egg ribbons. Just the way they serve in restaurants!

And if you have spent a little time reading this blog, you would know my love for dimsums/momos! I suffer from dimsum fanaticism, yeah that's true :).  So after a few continuous days of indulgences, soup - dimsum - focaccia bread would be such a nice combo! Since I already had lots of the amazing Tuscany Pane bread at home, decided to toast and slather it with soft butter! 

You need: Serves 2

Oil - 1 Tbsp

Ginger - 1/2 inch (finely chopped)

Garlic - 2-3 cloves (finely chopped)

Tomatoes - 2 medium size (Finely chopped/paste) 

Onion - 1/2 medium size (Finely chopped)

Egg - 2 

Tomato ketchup - 2 Tbsp (if you want spicy, replace 1 tbsp with tomato chili sauce)

Vinegar -  1Tbsp

Corn flour - 1 Tbsp

Fresh Coriander/ Cilantro ( including stems) - 6-7 sprigs (chopped finely)

Black Pepper powder -  to taste

Salt to taste

Sugar - 3/4 - 1 tsp (adjust to taste)

Vegetable/ Chicken stock - optional (can replace with water)

1. Break the eggs in a bowl and whisk lightly. Set aside. 
2. Mix the cornflour in 1/2 cup of water. 
3. Heat the oil in a wok or a pan, add ginger and garlic and stir-fry for half a minute.
4. Add onion and continue to stir-fry it it turns lightly translucent. You don't have to brown it. 
5. Add the tomato ketchup (or half tomato ketchup, half tomato chili sauce for a spicy soup) and chopped tomatoes and cook on high heat for about two to three minutes. Cook till its all pulpy. 
6. Stir in the remaining vegetable/ chicken stock or water and bring it to a boil. Add the salt, sugar, black pepper powder. 
7. Stir in the cornflour mixture and cook for a minute or until soup thickens, stirring continuously. 
8. Add the vinegar and cook for a min. Taste the recipe for salt sugar etc at this stage. 
9. Pour 1/4 of the whisked egg at a time from a height in a steady stream. Stir gently 1-2 times to form egg threads. REpeat with the remaining eggs. Allow the egg to coagulate and come to the top. Don't stir too much as you will get all scrambled eggs and no lacy eggs in the soup. 
10. Serve hot garnished with the fresh coriander. Coriander is indeed important.