This is a beef vegetable soup that uses leftover roast beef and is thickened with cornstarch. This is not a typical hearty soup, it is a chinese thickened soup that is closer to the popular hot and sour soup.
Chinese thickened soups usually contain a lot of finely sliced or chopped ingredients. For a new cook, gathering and chopping up so many ingredients can be daunting. This beef soup recipe has only a few ingredients so it is a good practice dish for perfecting the techniques of chopping ingredients and thickening the soup using cornstarch or arrowroot powder.
This beef vegetable soup contains a chinese vegetable known as chinese kale or chinese broccoli (芥兰 gai lan). The leaves can be quite tough and bitter but the stems are wonderfully crunchy and juicy. Gai lan is not usually found in soups, they are better quick fried with chopped garlic.
If you can't find chinese kale or chinese broccoli, substitute with broccoli stems or kale stems. Peel off the tough outer skin.
Ingredients100g beef fillet or leftover roast beef
50g Chinese kale or chinese broccoli stems
2 dried chinese mushrooms
1/2 stalk spring onion
1500ml soup stock
5 tbsp cornstarch mixture (for thickening)
1 egg white
Seasonings
1 tsp soy sauce
2 tsp sugar
2 tbsp cooking wine
Dash of pepper
1 tbsp cornstarch (for coating the beef fillet)
1 tsp salt
Directions
- Chop the beef into tiny tiny cubes
- Marinate the beef with 1 tsp soy sauce, 1 tsp sugar, 1 tbsp cooking wine, dash of pepper and 1 tbsp cornstarch. Mix well (skip this step if you are using leftover beef)
- Chop the stems of the chinese kale into tiny cubes
- Soak the dried mushrooms to reconstitute and chop into tiny cubes
- Chop the spring onion finely
- Place soup stock in a big soup pot, add the beef, diced cabbage mustard and mushrooms
- Bring to a boil quickly
- Add 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp sugar, 1 tbsp cooking wine, dash of pepper
- Bring everything to a boil again
- Thicken the soup with the cornstarch mixture. Do not pour the entire mixture in. Add by the spoonful and stir constantly to mix well
- When the soup has thickened to a consistency you like, stop adding
- Beat the egg white well
- Remove the soup from the stove
- Drizzle the beaten egg white into the soup, give it a good swirl and serve
Recipe link: Beef vegetable soup
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