While I was growing up, my family loved to go out to eat. We enjoyed Chinese food immensely and almost always ordered Hot and Sour Soup when we went to a Chinese Restaurant. Steaming hot, spicy, fragrant and slightly sour, this soup embodies all the delicious umami flavors. I love it so much that I recreated my memory of the soup I ate while growing up with a tasty vegan version to go in my cookbook.

However, during the testing phase for The Abundance Diet, somehow this recipe eluded most of my testers and therefore didn’t end up making the cut in the final cookbook. I’ve decided to share it here with you now, and in the coming months I’ll be sharing other Outtakes here as well that are suitable for use while following The Abundance Diet.

This soup is a brothy sort of soup so it needs a really good chicken flavored vegetable stock. (An oxymoron I know) I like Better than Bullion No Chicken Paste or the Edward and Sons vegan Not Chick’n cubes.

It’s also notable that this recipe uses oil, which 99% of the recipes in the cookbook don’t. The oil here is mostly used for seasoning and flavor. So reduce it to a teaspoon if you like, but don’t leave it out.

Restaurant Style Vegan Hot and Sour Soup

• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 2 cups fresh sliced button or shittake mushrooms (or other fresh mushrooms)
• 2 tablespoons fresh grated ginger
• 3 cloves minced garlic
• 4 cups vegan chicken flavored broth
• 3 tablespoons seasoned rice vinegar
• 3 tablespoons tamari
• 1 heaped teaspoon sambal oelek
• 1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper (or more, to taste)
• 1/2 teaspoon organic sugar
• 3 tablespoons non GMO corn starch
• 2 tablespoons wood ear mushrooms (leave them out if you can’t find them)
• 8 oz firm tofu, drained and cubed
• 3 diced scallions

Heat the oil over medium heat in a soup pot until shimmering, add the mushrooms and cook until they release their liquid, about 4-6 minutes. Add the ginger and garlic and cook for a minute or two more.

Combine the broth, rice vinegar, tamari, sambal oelek, ground white pepper, sugar and the corn starch with a wire whisk. Add this liquid mixture to the soup pot.

Add the the wood ear mushrooms and tofu. Simmer for 5-10 minutes or until soup has thickened slightly. Remove from heat and add scallions. Serve immediately.

Note: if desired you can also add bamboo shoots to this recipe.