Slow Cooker Easy Hot and Sour Soup

 

Hot and Sour Soup is my friend Lena's favorite when we go out to eat at the Chinese buffets in Monroeville.  She always starts her meal with this soup and she always requests me to ladle mostly the solid goodies in it and less of the broth. 

 

Lena has not been able to see for almost two decades now and she relies on others to help her including when she eats out.  She has been my Chinese buffet buddy so I know exactly what to get her.  The soup is usually followed by crab rangoon, fried chicken wings, an egg roll, baked mussels and General Tso's chicken.  For dessert, she will have tapioca and some fruit.

 

She fell just a month or so ago but she has maintained her appetite.  Lena loves to eat.  This past week Lena was brought to the hospital again since she was not feeling well.   I wanted to visit her after I attended Mass.  I prepared this easy hot and sour soup in the slow cooker before I left for church  so it would be conveniently ready to be brought to her during my visit.  When I visited her at the hospital yesterday I was happy to see her skin color with the healthy hue had come back. I am not sure if she was able to eat the soup since I left for another church function before her lunch but her granddaughter, Gianna, who ate it even though I warned her it was spicy, liked it.  I left the hospital happy since Lena was looking good and very eager and hopeful to eat the soup for lunch.

 

I based the recipe on the one done on the stove top that I found in cooks.com.  It featured ingredients I happened to have on hand.  Mushrooms, bamboo shoots, cooked pork, tofu and chili paste for the heat.  I found the amounts of most of the ingredients too meager and doubled most of them to make the soup more robust like one would find in a good Chinese buffet.  I wanted the hot and sour soup to be filled with those goodies like Lena would want.  I kept the amount of chili paste and other spices the same as the original recipe. 

 

This is a very easy recipe to use if one has a craving for the popular and satisfying hot and sour soup.  It is very convenient for days like a Sunday since you will have a good, robust soup for your lunch or dinner waiting for you when you come back from church. 

 



Slow Cooker Easy Hot and Sour Soup

Ingredients

• 4 cups chicken stock (or 4 cups water and 4 chicken bouillon cubes)
• 3 tbsps soy sauce
• 1/2 tbsp garlic chili paste
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 1/4 cup white vinegar
• 2 tbsp cornstarch
• 1/2 cup cooked pork (or chicken)
• 1 cup mushrooms, sliced
• 2/3 cup canned bamboo shoots
• 6 oz tofu, cut into 1/4 inch dice
• 1/2 cup water chestnuts, diced (optional)
• 1 egg, beaten
• 2 green onion stalks, diced (including tops)
• 1/2 tsp toasted sesame oil

1.  Place the first six ingredients in the slow cooker and mix them with a whisk or fork.  Add the pork, mushrooms, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts and tofu and cook for 3 hours at high or 6 hours at low. I used an Aroma brand rice cooker/slow cooker and cooked the soup for 2 hours a slow cooker setting.

2.  At the end of cooking time, slowly add the beaten egg in a fine stream into the hot soup.  Then stir soup several times.

3.  Add the green onions and sesame oil to individual bowls before serving the hot soup.