Vegetable manchow soup is an Indo-Chinese soup; this soup enjoys popularity in large & small restaurants and in the street-side food carts.
Making this soup has marked a couple of firsts for me – this my first attempt at making an Indo-Chinese soup and this is the first time I am using corn flour ever in my life. I was super happy with the output. Not only did it taste like the ones I have had in restaurants, it also helped my bad cold. This may just be what the doctor ordered.
With loads of veggies and little salt, this makes for a healthy soup. Although I was not too kicked about the idea of using corn flour, it did thicken up the soup beautifully. So I guess I will overlook this aspect. 🙂
Ingredients
- Spring onions/green onions/scallions – 2 (thinly sliced white and green parts)
- Garlic – 2 cloves minced
- Minced ginger – 1/2 tblspn
- Green chillies – 4, thinly sliced
- Finely chopped cabbage, carrot and French beans – 1/4 cup
- Mushroom (optional) – 2, finely chopped
- Tomato – 1/2, finely chopped
- Chopped coriander leaves – 1 tblspn
- Chopped mint leaves – 1/2 tblspn
- Soy sauce – 2 tblspns
- Vinegar – 1 tblspn
- Chilli sauce (optional) – 2 tspns
- Stock – 4 cups
- Pepper powder – 1/4 tspn
- Corn flour – 2 heaped tblspns
- Water – a few tablespoons to mix corn flour
- Oil – 1 ½ tspns.
Directions
- Heat oil in a pot. Add garlic, ginger and chillies.
- Cook till garlic starts to turn brown.
- Toss in the spring onions and sauté for about 20 seconds.
- Add the chopped mixture of cabbage, French beans and carrots.
- Sauté the vegetables for 30 to 40 seconds, and then add the tomato and mushroom pieces.
- Cook for another 30 seconds.
- Pour in the stock and bring it to a boil.
- While the soup is boiling, mix water and corn flour to form a thick pourable liquid, and keep aside.
- Once the soup comes to a boil, add soy sauce, vinegar, chilli sauce and pepper powder.
- Mix well and allow it to boil.
- Add the coriander and mint leaves, and mix well.
- At this stage, check the salt and spice content in the soup.
- Add more salt or chilli sauce to suit your preference.
- Finally, pour that thick con flour mixture that you prepared earlier.
- Stir and mix the soup immediately after pouring the corn flour mixture.
- You will now notice the soup thickening.
- Allow it to boil for another minute or two till the desired thickness is achieved.
- Once done, turn off the flame, and serve the soup hot.
Tips:
- Add or omit vegetables based on your preference.
- I used light soy sauce. If you like your soup deep brown and almost black in colour use dark soy sauce.
- Stock is a crucial element to flavour the soup. Avoid using water.
- I like my soup spicy, reduce the quantity Of chilli sauce and/or chillies to suit your taste.
- Add 1/2 a tablespoon of honey to give the soup a slight sweet taste.