This simple tofu soup recipe gets the sweetness of napa cabbage and the richness of a few eggs. It’s deliciously warm and comforting and incredibly easy to make.
With just 11 ingredients, most of which you probably already have in your kitchen (broth, water, white pepper, sesame oil, salt), you can make a tasty tofu soup that’s actually flavorful and filling!
Tofu and Napa cabbage: a winter combination
Napa cabbage and tofu are a great pairing in Chinese cuisine, as they are often featured together in winter meals. These two ingredients bring out the best in each other.
Napa cabbage is a hardy vegetable that can survive through the winter. Furthermore, its natural sweetness intensifies in the colder months. (Hardy vegetables develop sugars to resist frost.)
You can try it in some of our other napa cabbage recipes, like our Sichuan Napa Cabbage, Napa Cabbage Pork Rice Cakes, and Napa Cabbage Potstickers.
For this soup I like to cook the cabbage for a long time. The longer it cooks, the tastier it becomes.
Tofu is another year-round staple. Of course, using both in soups is nothing new. (See our fish and tofu soup). But the combination just works. The soft tofu and tender napa leaves are also a great textural match.
More and more supermarkets are selling napa cabbage these days, so this nutritious soup can be yours in an instant! If you have leftovers, so much the better. This soup, like many others, will be better the next day.
Fried eggs in soup?
Perhaps the most exciting technique in this soup is adding fried eggs. This is an idea I’ve seen in several recipes on the Chinese Internet.
Adding eggs to soup is very common in Chinese cuisine, but these eggs are usually added while they are still raw, such as in egg soup, hot and sour soup, egg and tomato noodle soup, western lake (recipe in our cookbook!), or in the banquet. style seafood soups.
Adding them after frying them first in a wok or pan, however, keeps the soup soupy rather than thick and also provides larger egg chunks in the soup, similar to chunks of meat or fish. The result is hearty, satisfying and easy!
Another secret:
Another fundamental step in this soup? Keeping it at a rapid boil for 10 minutes, until you obtain a milky broth, similar to ramen broth!
While there are many tofu soups, we hope you enjoy this version.
Make this soup vegetarian
This recipe can easily be made vegetarian by simply substituting our Asian vegetable broth, or your favorite vegetable broth, for chicken broth.
Tofu soup recipe instructions
In a saucepan, bring the chicken broth and water to a boil. Once boiling, cover and lower the heat to keep it boiling.
Meanwhile, place a medium saucepan or wok over medium-high heat until hot enough to cause a small splash of water to drip and dance along the cooking surface. (See our post on how to prevent it from sticking.)
Once hot, add oil to coat the bottom of the pan. Crack the eggs into the pot and cook over medium-high heat until the eggs are browned around the edges (it’s important to brown the egg well).
Flip the eggs and do the same on the other side, making sure they are fully cooked. (The runny yolk clouds the soup.)
Transfer the fried eggs to a cutting board and cut them into small pieces. Return the egg pieces to the pot.
Increase the heat to high and pour in the broth/boiling water, along with the tofu and mushrooms (we used beech mushrooms, AKA bunashimeji mushrooms, but you can use oyster, button, cremini, shiitake, whatever mushroom you have on hand) .
Cover and boil for 10 minutes over high heat. This will give the soup a rich, milky appearance, similar to ramen broth:
Next, add the napa cabbage.
Cover and cook for another 5-10 minutes, or until the cabbage is very tender. Add sesame oil, salt to taste and white pepper.
Top with cilantro and/or shallots.
Serve!
Tofu Soup (an easy Chinese recipe!)
This simple Chinese tofu soup recipe is flavorful, hearty, and easy, with just 11 basic ingredients, many of which you probably already have!
serves: 4
Preparation: 10 minutes
Cooked: 35 minutes
Total: 45 minutes
Prevents the screen from going dark
Instructions
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In a saucepan, bring the chicken broth and water to a boil. Once boiling, cover and lower the heat to keep it boiling. Meanwhile, place a medium saucepan or wok over medium-high heat until hot enough to cause a small splash of water to drip and dance along the cooking surface.
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Once hot, add oil to coat the bottom of the pan. Crack the eggs into the pot and cook over medium-high heat until the eggs are golden brown around the edges (it’s important to brown the egg well). Flip the eggs and do the same on the other side, making sure they are fully cooked. (The runny yolk clouds the soup.)
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Transfer the fried eggs to a cutting board and cut them into small pieces. Return the egg pieces to the pot. Increase the heat to high and pour in the broth/boiling water, along with the tofu and mushrooms. Cover and boil for 10 minutes over high heat.
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Next, add the napa cabbage. Cover and cook for another 5-10 minutes, or until the cabbage is very tender. Add sesame oil, salt to taste and white pepper. Top with cilantro and/or shallots and serve.
nutritional data
Calories: 237kcal (12%) Carbohydrates: 10G (3%) Protein: 16G (32%) Fat: 16G (25%) Saturated fat: 3G (15%) Polyunsaturated fats: 5G Monounsaturated fats: 7G Trans fats: 0.04G Cholesterol: 123mg (41%) Sodium: 432mg (18%) Potassium: 728mg (21%) Fiber: 1G (4%) Sugar: 4G (4%) Vitamin A: 516UI (10%) Vitamin C: 24mg (29%) Soccer: 136mg (14%) Iron: 2mg (11%)
