I have a serious addiction to clear broth soup, a staple at Vietnamese restaurants. Far from boring old broth, this is flavorful comfort food at its best. The broth is infused with garlic and ginger, probably lemongrass, and you add nothing but simple vegetables like carrots and something green - I’ve seen broccoli or zucchini or even green beans used - and the optional addition of tofu.
Then, the toppings - yes, toppings for soup! Aromatic herbs - think a combination of fresh basil, mint, and green onion - are essential. I often see bean sprouts used at restaurants, but you could also add pre-cooked rice noodles to make it more substantial. Cubes of tofu are good if you’d like protein. And if you like heat, add slices of fresh jalapenos. The whole thing is then finished off with a squeeze of fresh lemon or lime juice at the end. It’s really something special - fresh, keeps you full, and generally wonderful.
But it’s not readily available by my work, and I’m trying to eat out at restaurants less anyway. So I decided to try my hand at an easy, microwave-friendly make-at-work version. And while it’s not quite as good as the restaurant stuff, it’s pretty tasty (if I do say so myself) and certainly is head over shoulders above any canned soup.
Don’t be afraid of the clove of garlic in this recipe. A fun fact about cooking with garlic - the more intact the garlic clove, the less intense the garlic flavor in the soup. So, a whole garlic clove - slightly garlicky; clove cut in half = slightly more garlic; slices of garlic, even more garlic flavor, and the most garlicky flavor will come from mincing garlic or grating it. I totally recommend starting with a squished whole clove of garlic that infuses the broth with a pleasant garlic flavor but won’t have people avoiding you the rest of the day : )
Cheater clear broth soup
Total time (prep and cooking): 15 min
1 cup peeled/sliced carrots (I sliced mine on the bias to be fancy, but simple “coins” are fine; you can easily chop up baby carrots for this to avoid peeling)
1 cup or so broccoli florets, washed (I used bagged florets but breaking down a fresh head of broccoli would probably make it a - horrors - 20 minutes recipe.)
2 tablespoons “onion-y” fresh herbs - green onion or chives (DO NOT SUBSTITUTE DRIED)
1 tablespoon fresh chopped mint (DO NOT SUBSTITUTE DRIED)
1 tablespoon other fresh herbs, optional - cilantro, parsley and basil are all good (at the risk of sounding like a broken record - really, don’t substitute dried herbs. It will suck, I promise.)
1 clove fresh garlic (chopped garlic is way too strong for this soup imho)
1 chunk of fresh ginger, about 1” coin
1/2 bouillon cube (I used Rapunzel vegan bouillon with sea salt and herbs.)
1 lemon or lime wedge (don’t use the juice from a bottle. Ugh.)
- Smash the garlic clove with the flat blade of a chef’s knife and the heel of your hand (like this, except hit it only once - you want the clove to be intact but just smooshed.)
- Score the chunk of ginger, but not all the way through - keep it in one piece. The idea is that we’re increasing the surface area of the ginger so there are more points of contact with the broth and cutting it to release all the good ginger-ness without actually having lots of little chunks of ginger in the broth.
- Chop your herbs.
- Put your vegetables in one container, half the bouillon cube, garlic, ginger and lime in another container, and chopped herbs in a third container.
Here are the little baggies I used today; I don’t recommend adding other items with herbs:
All of the pieces: veggies; herbs, lime wedge, ginger, garlic; half a bouillon cube is in another bag just outside of the frame.
At work, preparation is pretty easy:
- In a microwavable container, nuke your veggies first without the broth and just a splash of water for 2 min.
- Then, remove from microwave (be caerful; it’s hot!), and add the bouillon, garlic and ginger to the container with the veggies. (If you’d like to add some tofu, add it to your container now.) Fill with as much water as you’d like, submerging the ginger and garlic, and nuke for another 2 min.
- Remove from microwave (be careful; it’ll be very hot). Add the herbs, stir to ensure the bouillon cube is dissolved, and squeeze lemon or lime over the bowl. Add any toppings you’d like to now (e.g. bean sprouts, etc.) You can also remove/discard the chunks of garlic/ginger, but I like to let them sit in the broth to continue infusing - just don’t eat them (unless you REALLY like garlic/ginger.)
- You now have a steaming bowl of fresh, pretty, delicious clear broth soup. Enjoy!
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