菠菜鸡蛋汤 Spinach Egg Drop Soup

This is a perfect soup for fall flu season coming up or really anytime you want a quick and easy comforting soup to warm you up and put you too sleep. This feels like eating a bowl of chicken noodle soup. The creamy egg, soft spinach, rich broth and bouncy noodles all come together into a delicious soup.

In China a soup like this is most often eaten with a large, deep spoon and a pair of chop sticks. The spoon holds the broth and the chop sticks keep the long noodles from sliding back into the bowl. Both spoon and chop sticks enter the mouth with the chopsticks in the lead. How ever you choose to eat it, I hope you don't miss out on this delicious and healthy soup.

Ingredients

200 grams spinach leaves, washed and chopped
3 eggs, beaten
1 small knob ginger, peeled and grated
2 green onions (make sure to make use of the white part, lots of flavor there)
6 cups chicken broth
1 bundle bean thread noodles
1 Tbsp. soy sauce
salt and pepper to taste
sprinkle sesame oil
2 tsp. starch

Prep the spinach, ginger and green onions.

In a medium size pot heat one Tbsp of oil. over medium heat. Add green onion and ginger and cook until fragrant. If you want a hardier soup you can first cook some ground pork sausage before adding the green onion and ginger and remember to drain the fat if you don't want a greasy soup.

 Add 6 cups chicken broth to the pot and bring to a boil.

 Add in the chopped spinach and bring back up to a boil. Mix 2 tsp. starch with 2 tsp. water and pour into the soup to thicken it slightly.

Beat 3 eggs then while stirring clockwise pour in the egg going in a counterclockwise direction around the pot. The liquid pulling against the direction the eggs are entering the soup is what creates the pretty flowering affect on the eggs. Remember to stir slowly for fat wisps of egg and faster for fine threads. I prefer fat wisps myself. If you want bigger pieces of egg then don't stir at all.

Submerge 1 bundle of bean thread (cellophane) noodle into boiling soup (the noodles are optional) and cook for 1-2 minutes. Stir in 1 Tbsp. soy sauce, drizzle a little sesame oil and season with salt and pepper to taste then remove from the heat.

This soup serves two on it's own. But it can serve four if you are using it as a side.

It also makes great left overs. Check out Sweet Corn Egg Drop Soup for another variation of Egg Drop Soup.