Quick an easy tofu soup with Bok Choy and a wonderful roasted fresh pepper dipping sauce.
Tofu soup, along with easy egg drop soup is one of the most popular soups on my Chinese family table. While it might be considered as too plain with no charming taste. But we never drink tofu soup separately. It is a great partner to other Chinese braised recipes like red braised pork belly, braised chicken and stir-fries. Plain tofu soup helps us to obtain well balances among different nutrient substances. What’s more interesting is that the liquid and the Bok Choy is quite great. However no matter how great the liquid is, the tofu slices are plain and tasteless. So I matched the soup with an interesting dipping sauce using roasted green peppers, which is only and extremely popular in Sichuan area, named as “烧椒汁”.
How to make the dipping sauce
Heat peppers in a wok or casting iron pan until slightly dark browned on surface. Transfer to a crusher and then crush until getting a paste texture.
Transfer the paste to a small bowl, top with garlic and scallion whites. Heat around 1/3 cup of oil until smoky. Pour the hot oil evenly on the paste.
Mix with light soy sauce and sugar. That’s our sauce.
How to cook tofu soup
- Cut tofu into large pieces. If you do not serve with dipping sauces, you can cut them into small cubes.
- In a large pot, add tofu pieces, ginger shreds and 2.5 L water. Bring to a boiling.
- Add Bok Choy and drop sesame oil in. Continue cook for 1 minute. Season with salt. Serve immediately with dipping sauce.
- 1 box tofu ,either soft or firm
- 250 g Bok Choy
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1/2 tbsp. sesame oil
- 1 thumb ginger ,shredded
- 2.5 L water
- 6 long green chili peppers
- 2-3 red Thai peppers
- 3 garlic cloves
- 1 scallion white
- 1/3 cup of oil ,heated until boiling
- 1 tbsp. light soy sauce
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1 tsp. sugar
-
Heat peppers in a wok or casting iron pan until slightly dark browned on surface. Transfer to a crusher and then crush until getting a paste texture.
-
Transfer the paste to a small bowl, top with garlic and scallion whites. Heat around 1/3 cup of oil until smoky. Pour the hot oil evenly on the paste.
-
Mix with light soy sauce and sugar. That’s our sauce.
-
Cut tofu into large pieces. If you do not serve with dipping sauces, you can cut them into small cubes.
-
In a large pot, add tofu pieces, ginger shreds and 2.5 L water. Bring to a boiling.
-
Add Bok Choy and drop sesame oil in. Continue cook for 1 minute. Season with salt. Serve immediately with dipping sauce.
Not only does this soup look amazing and elegant, I love that spoon – where did you get it!? Lovely!
Thanks Ali. I get the spoon from a roadside market selling coffee stuff. They are cute and I love it too.
What’s cooking wine? Can I omit or replace it with?
Silvia,
Cooking wine is a kind of rice wine using for cooking, If you do not have some at home, you can just omit it. It just helps to remove the raw taste but not that much important.
I made this for lunch today without the pig and it was so hearty, filling and delicious. Such a simple and satisfying meal. It feels so nourishing to eat a hot bowl of soup.
I love your website and the gorgeous photos that accompany your recipes, except they always make me hungry!
Thanks Shelby for so many kind words. This is a plain soup dish but really healthy and yummy too.
Where would you find tapioca and in what form? Could you find it at your local (North American ) grocery store?
Hi Michelle, we usually use tapioca starch for meat balls or other balls. But it is ok to replace it with cornstarch. I believe you can find it at Amazon too.
I made this soup last night with the dipping sauce. Everyone in my family had two and three servings. I used chicken broth (from recipe here) instead of water. I also used Jalapeno pepper instead of the long green chili peppers.
Just want to say THANK YOU for an easy-to-make hot pot. This soup is a keeper, for sure!
Hello, Ms. Luo. 🙂 Thank you, so much, for posting this recipe! I just printed out the instructions and I cannot wait to try it. I’m a VERY big fan of bok choy and tofu, and I’m sure this will taste great together.
You will love it. Keep me noticed no matter how you feel about the result.
This soup looks so good, and I plan to make it this week. I do have a question about the long green chili pepper. Are they meant to be more or less hot than the red Thai peppers? Is there a variety that you would suggest?
They are less hot than Thai peppers but are spicy too. You can choose the type of chili pepper based on your own taste preference. For example, using Barker’s Hot chili pepper for a hotter version or Anaheim pepper for a mild flavor. In most cases, I get my newly harvested peppers in the backyard and the sauce varies a lot in hot level. Older peppers give a hotter taste even with the same type.
Hi Elaine,
how much is a “box” of tofu? I just looked into my refrigerator and found package sizes ranging from 300g to 500g. But I have seen larger and smaller ones at the store, and some sell just blocks of (firm) tofu without a box, just in a bag.
By the way, I’ve made this soup a couple of times now. It’s really a good fit for very nutritious and/or spicy meals.
Thank you for the recipe Elaine.
Yes, you get it Andreas. That’s our balance, not in a particular dish but the entire meal.