Egg drop soup, possibly the most popular home style soup can be made with lots of various versions. If you have a pre-made chicken stock, then you can make one pot of yummy egg drop soup directly only with several other seasonings. But egg drop soup can be made with water instead of stock.
Successful tomato egg drop soup has a strong sweet and sour taste. Without the help of canned tomatoes, I fry one tomato until very thick and soft. During the strongly boiling process, the tissues are broken and spread evenly in the soup base, which provides the very basic aroma of a tomato soup. Sliced tomatoes are added for decorating and adding more texture to the soup.
However please note it is a very light soup, not for eating but in most cases served for drinking like ” beverage” in western meals. You may find it to be la little bit plain if you want to make a western style strong soup.
Cook’s Note
- Choose mature tomatoes, which creates rich flavor for the soup.
- If you want larger egg flowers, gently stir the soup after pouring the egg liquid. For finer egg drops, quickly stir the soup.
Ingredients
- 2 large tomatoes, try to choose the mature ones
- 4 cups water
- 1 or 2 large eggs
- 2 tbsp. cornstarch
- 3 tbsp. water
- 2 tbsp. cooking oil
- 1 tbsp. light soy sauce
- ½ tbsp. minced ginger
- 1/8 tsp. white pepper
- chopped green onion and coriander for garnishing
Steps
Cut one tomato into small dices and the other one into slices. Well beaten the egg until there is a fine layer of small bubbles.
Heat up around 2 tablespoons of cooking oil in a deep pot and pour in the smashed tomato and fry until the oil becomes red too.
Pour in water, add ginger and bring all the content to a boiling. Then add white pepper and light soy sauce and place the remaining tomato slices.
Stir the starch water again and pour it into the broth. Simmer to boil again.
Turn up the fire and then slightly pour the whisked egg in. Stir the soup with chopsticks. Turn off the fire, add some fresh chopped scallion and coriander. serve immediately.
- 2 large tomatoes ,try to choose the mature ones
- 4 cups water
- 1 or 2 large eggs
- 2 tbsp. cornstarch
- 3 tbsp. water
- 2 tbsp. cooking oil
- 1 tbsp. light soy sauce
- 1/8 tsp. white pepper
- ½ tbsp. minced ginger
- chopped green onion and coriander for garnishing
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Cut one tomato into small dices and the other one into slices. Well beaten the egg until there is a fine layer of small bubbles.
-
Heat up around 2 tablespoons of cooking oil in a deep pot and pour in the smashed tomato and fry until the oil becomes red too.
-
Pour in water, add ginger and bring all the content to a boiling. Then add white pepper and light soy sauce and place the remaining tomato slices.
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Mix 2 tablespoons of cornstarch with 3 tablespoons of water to make the starch water. Stir the starch water again and pour it into the broth. Simmer to boil again.
-
Turn up the fire and then slightly pour the whisked egg in. Stir the soup with chopsticks. Turn off the fire, add some fresh chopped scallion and coriander. serve immediately.
Hi Elaine,
when using self made chicken stock for this soup – like the one from your recipe – I suspect that when using it “pure”, the taste would be very strong. So my question is, at what rate would you mix chicken stock with water for this?
This is a good question! For me, I will use 1/3 chicken stock and 2/3 water to make a combination.
Thank you Elaine,
I tried it and it really was the best tomato egg drop soup I ever made!
Thanks!
Hi Elaine,
I think that’s a common misconception about soups when coming from “western” style cooking. I fell into that trap, too and at first thought “Why are the soups so bland?”. A countryman of yours explained this quite well (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5NVhZu5Jzk sorry, it’s in German) . In my opinion, he puts it very well down in the sentence: “A soup is not for eating, but for drinking.” Continuing he mentions, that soup in China has more the role of a beverage in a meal,, like water, juice, beer or wine would have in a western style meal. That’s maybe something, that you might want to emphasize a little bit more, too.
How much Chicken Broth/Stock is used in this recipe?
Thank you
SG
Susan,
If you get light chicken stock, you can use only chicken stock and no water. So it should be 4 cups too.
Made this with water (i follow a low sodium diet), this was absolutely amazing. I had my doubts, but I was so wrong. This is my new quick snack / dinner option.
Thanks Ace. It need only very basic and simple ingredients but super delicious as long as the tomatoes are mature enough. Happy cooking, I hope you will like other recipes on the site.
I just tried, very nice, thanks for sharing!
Thanks for trying and giving feedback!
This is one of my favourite chinese dishes! Can’t wait to try it at home, just discovered your blog and it’s amazing, congratulations for your great job! My dad was a doctor, he studied a master’s degree in acupuncture and he made a 1 month internship in a hospital in Beijing to practice acupuncture. My mum, brother, aunts, uncles and cousins accompanied him and we were so lucky to live in your amazing country for one month and discover how delicious Chinese food is. That was in 2007 and I have been since then looking for recipes in english (tried to learn Mandarin for one year but it’s sooo difficult). And then I find this website n_n with all my favourite recipes in it!
Warm greetings from Málaga (Spain), and thank you for you wonderful work!
Thanks Merche for your lovely feedback. Guys like you are my initial motivation. Happy cooking and happy to see you.