Dried Vegetable Soup (菜乾湯)

No ratings yet

Dried Vegetable Soup (菜乾湯)

Dried Vegetable Soup uses classic Chinese ingredients, so you can trust that it's authentic. It's flavored with mushrooms, dates and sun-dried bok choy!

Prep Time4

Cook Time30

Stock Cooking Time3

Total Time7 30

Course: Breakfast, Dinner, Lunch, Main Course, Soup

Cuisine: Asian, Cantonese, Chinese

Servings:

Calories: 119kcal

Author: Jeannette

Equipment

Scissors
Colander

Ingredients

2 1/2 L / 10.5 US cup chicken and pork stock
100 g / 0.22 lb choy gorn/dehydrated bok choy (roughly one packet)
3 honey dates
4 dried red dates (a.k.a. jujubes)
3 rehydrated shiitake mushrooms (water squeezed out)
1 tsp salt (or to taste)
1 tbsp chicken bouillon powder

Instructions

Bring the stock to a simmer, then add the dried red and honey dates, shiitake mushrooms, salt and chicken bouillon powder in.
Meanwhile, rinse the dried vegetables in cool water, then soak for 30 minutes. Give the batch another rinse after this and soak for another 3 hours or until the stems have softened.
Note: The stems will expand and rehydrate until they're white again. This is when they're ready.
When rehydrated, pour the contents into a colander and wring the vegetables dry.
Cut off the hard ends at the base of the bok choy using scissors.
Turn the heat of the soup up to a boil, then add the choy gorn into the pot. Let it simmer for 20 minutes.
Serve immediately as is!

Notes

Wash the bok choy well. This removes any excess sediment or impurities so you have a cleaner broth.
Double boil the stock. You can reduce the amount of floating scum if you do this, which also makes the soup clearer and smoother.
Let it simmer with the lid partially on. Closing it completely can raise the temperature too quickly and result in boiling the soup. You want a slow simmer for a clean taste.
We get all the ingredients from Asian supermarkets in the dried goods section. They'll be sold separately in plastic bags, so just reseal and store what you don't use for future recipes.
You may find some harder parts where the stems join, so it's important to cut them off after the soaking.

Nutrition