Egg Drop Soup with Bok Choy and Mushrooms is a unique, flavorful, comforting soup for a lovely belly-pleasing meal.
Any time I lose creativity in the kitchen, the one thing that gets me back on track is taking a simple and fun approach and trying new types of cuisines. Which brings me to my next point.
Dropping eggs.
It’s a freaking blast.
Trying out a new cuisine or technique is what fuels my fire and keeps me interested in my own culinary pursuits Egg drop soup is one of those dishes I thought was impossible to prepare at home until I did.
I’ve always waited until a Chinese takeout extravaganza in order to enjoy the slurp-able soup. Turns out, egg drop soup is not only easy peasy to make, it comes out with an authentic flavor that will parallel (if not, rival) the real deal.
While a simple egg drop soup is fine by me any ol’ day, I like adding fresh vegetables to ramp up to provide extra flavor, and make the soup more filling. I added mushrooms and baby bok choy, which required only a few extra minutes of sauté time.
Recipe Adaptations:
Customizations? We’ve got plenty of potential.
You can add any combination of your favorite hearty vegetables (try broccoli, cauliflower, bell pepper, squash, etc.), tofu, and/or meat of choice.
You can also eliminate all the frills and keep this a simple sipping soup. Are you a spice lover like me?
Add chilis, hot sauce, and/or chili paste.
The recipe calls for cornstarch, which you can replace using tapioca starch – the texture will not turn out quite the same, but the tapioca will do the trick for thickening.
If you love this recipe, also try my Thai Tom Kha Gai or my Green Curry Thai Noodle Soup.
Drop some eggs!
Egg Drop Soup with Bok Choy and Mushrooms
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 cinnamon sticks
- 1 star anise
- 2 inch stalks lemongrass halved and chopped into 3- pieces
- 1 (2-inch) piece ginger sliced into rounds
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes optional
- 2 bulbs baby bok choy
- 4 mushrooms chopped
- 4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
- 2 tablespoons liquid aminos to taste
- 3 large eggs
- 1 ½ tablespoons cornstarch separated**
- 1 bunch green onion chopped
Instructions
- Heat the olive oilover medium-high in a large saucepan or pot. Add cinnamon sticks, anise, lemongrass, ginger, garlic, and red pepper flakes and cook, stirring frequently, until spices are very fragrant, about 3 minutes.
- Add the chicken broth and liquid aminos and stir well. Bring mixture to a full boil, then reduce the heat, cover, and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes.
- While the broth is simmering, saute the bok choy and mushrooms in a separate skillet. To do so, heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a skillet over medium-high and saute the veggies until browned and softened, about 5 to 8 minutes. Once cooked, transfer veggies to the broth.
- Taste the broth for flavor. Add more liquid aminos (or miso paste) if desired. Remove the ginger rounds, cinnamon sticks, anise, and lemongrass stalks from the broth using a slotted spoon, and discard.
- Add 1 tablespoon of cornstarch to a small bowl and pour in 1/3 to 1/2 cup of the hot broth. Stir well until dissolved.
- Transfer the cornstarch mixture to the pot with the broth and stir well, leaving the broth at a very gentle simmer.
- Add eggs to a small bowl, along with the remaining (1/2 tablespoon) cornstarch. Whisk together until well-combined.
- Slowly pour the egg/starch mixture into the simmering broth through the tines of the fork. Do this a little bit at a time, whisking the broth between pours. Once all of the egg has been poured into the soup, allow broth to sit at low heat for a couple of minutes, whisking occasionally, to ensure egg cooks all the way.
- Serve the egg drop soup with freshly chopped green onion, and enjoy!
Notes
**You can replace cornstarch with tapioca starch
Super cool, never knew how egg drops are made in egg drop soup and was thrilled to give it a try. This recipe is absolutely delicious, and we love that it has bok choy and mushrooms vs the chinese takeout type without vegetables! I didn’t have anise so I used allspice, I didn’t have lemongrass so I zested some lemon, I substituted tapioca flour for cornstarch and used better than bullion vegetable broth mix instead of chicken broth. Oh, I think you forgot to say in the recipe when to put the ginger? I realized and added the ginger circles while the broth was simmering. This soup came out amazing, we both loved it and ate the whole thing for dinner between the two of us. Thanks for the great recipe!
Thanks so much for the sweet note, Leola! I just added the ginger to the recipe – thank you for catching that and bringing it to my attention! I add it at the same time as the garlic and lemongrass. 🙂 I’m thrilled you enjoyed the soup!
I haven’t had egg drop soup in forever! Looks delicious and comforting.
So much goodness in this egg drop soup!!
Egg drop soup was my staple order when I was little and me and my dad used to get Chinese food every weekend. It’s so soothing, silky, and perfectly salty! Love that you bulked it up with some veggies 🙂
You make dropping eggs sound like it should be an Xtreme Sport! And I mean that in the most fun, stress relieving, GET DINNER ON THE TABLE kind of way. Could totally use an Xtra large bowl of this at the moment.
This looks amazing! I love egg drop soup but I have never had it with extras in it like this, I can’t wait to try it!
I’ve never made egg drop soup before but have always wanted to! Thanks for giving me the recipe I needed to get me pushed in that direction! 😀