How to Make Tomato Egg Drop Soup With Seaweed & Cucumber 番茄紫菜蛋花汤

Hey guys, what's going on? Today, I got a super awesome, really easy recipe for you. It is getting colder here, and there's nothing better on a cold day than hot pot, but we're actually not talking about hot pot today. So we're going to talk about the second best thing on a cold day, which is a nice bowl of soup. So I'm going to show you guys how to make this super simple, super healthy, super delicious tomatoes and eggs and seaweed soup. And for those of you who are not familiar with seaweed, well, you need to be because seaweed is awesome. Here's all the things you need to make this soup. Couple of medium-sized tomatoes, two eggs, two scallions, some chicken bouillon. If you don't have this, you can just use salt, but I would really recommend this because it adds a nice chicken broth-y flavor to the soup. Some cilantro, some dried seaweed, which I have already rinsed out with water here, and about six ounces of thinly sliced cucumber. Then all you need is some salt and some soy sauce, and we're ready to go. Remove the vine part of the tomato, and we're going to go ahead and cut these into wedges. Next we're going to cut up our scallions. We're going to remove the green and white parts and dice up each section. Break your eggs into a bowl. Okay, once you slice your tomatoes into wedges, cut your cucumbers into thin slices, chopped up your scallions, separate the white part and the green part. The green part, you can go ahead and mix it with the cilantro because that's going on the soup later. Go ahead and beat your eggs, and make sure to wash the dry seaweed and water so you don't get any sand in there. And the amount of seaweed you want to use is purely based on your preference. I like a good amount of seaweed because I love how this thing tastes in my soup. Let's turn the heat on medium-high, drop a little cooking oil in your pan, toss in the white part of your scallions, let that cook for just maybe about 10 to 15 seconds. In goes the tomatoes, cook that for about 30 seconds or so. Here you want to add about half a teaspoon of salt, give it a quick toss, and then add four cups of water. And then just let this boil. You can cover this up at this point, but I lost my pan cover, so I'm just going to let it cook like this. When you see it just starting to bubble, this is when you toss in your thin slices of cucumber. A lot of recipes, people don't like to add cucumber, but I feel like cucumber goes really well with this dish, and I really like that flavor inside my soup, so I'm going to add it. Now we're going to bring this to a full boil. When the soup comes to a boil, add a teaspoon of light soy sauce, and two teaspoons of chicken bouillon. Again, you can use salt if you want, but I feel like the flavor's going to be a little off. All right, now we're going to add the eggs. The reason we're adding the eggs late is so that it doesn't get overcooked. And we're going to kind of just like swirl this around. This way we're not getting like a clump of egg. And then we're going to add the scallions. All right, and that's going to cook real quick. See that right there? Now we're going to add our seaweed, because seaweed is also something you don't want to overcook. And that is it, my friends. Turn off the heat. Your tomatoes and eggs and seaweed soup is ready. But it's not completely ready yet. This is where you want to drizzle a little sesame oil on here, just a little bit. Add your cilantro and green onions. That is ready to go. All right, here we go. Give it a good mix so that the sesame oil gets everywhere, the cilantro, scallions get everywhere. The reason we add the sesame oil so late is because the sesame oil doesn't do well when it's being boiled. It loses a lot of its fragrance and flavor. That's why you want to add it at the very end. Let's give this broth a taste. That's really good. The broth is not meant to be overly salty. This dish is supposed to be a little light. And also, this dish is meant to be completely customizable. So when you get your bowl of soup, you can always add more salt. Or if you like Chinese black vinegar, add some Chinese black vinegar. Or if you like hot oil, add some hot oil. Let's try the egg. The egg is absolutely perfect. This is exactly why we pour the egg in at the end so the egg stays really tender. I really like the addition of cucumbers in this dish. Like I mentioned before, a lot of recipes don't call for cucumbers, but I think you should add it. Just slice it really thinly, toss it in. It's going to really add a lot of dimension to this dish. And if you're trying seaweed for the first time using this recipe, by now you should understand the magic element that is seaweed and how awesome it is in soups. Mmm. The seaweed is so good because it soaks up the soup. And whenever you take a bite of seaweed, you get a burst of soup in your mouth. And that slight, tiny little crunch of the seaweed, I love it. Alright, this is so good. I gotta customize it a little bit though. First thing going in is Chinese black vinegar. Now I'm from northern China, and basically every soup, we gotta add some Chinese black vinegar. And of course, I think you guys know what's coming up. Gotta add some hot oil in there. Alright, this is my upgraded tomatoes and egg and seaweed soup with Chinese black vinegar and hot oil. Oh, so exciting. Now this dish is really complete. At least, you know, for me. I think it's because the area I come from in China is known for sour in spice. You know how like Sichuan is more numbing in spice? My area of China is known for sour in spice. So we add Chinese black vinegar and we add hot oil to basically everything. Also, I do want to add, I love cilantro in soups. I gotta have it. Gotta have cilantro in my soups. You know, cilantro in Chinese is called xiang cai or fragrant vegetable. And what it does is really brings a unique fragrance to your soups. And whenever you bite down into it, it feels like you're biting into like this air pocket of scent. And it resonates everywhere within your mouth. Now I know some of you, you guys can't take cilantro. It's something biological where cilantro tastes to you like dish soap or something. Alright, there you go guys. My first soup recipe on this channel is super easy. Oh my god, it took like five minutes to make. And it's super healthy like I said. So go ahead and try it for yourself. I put all the ingredients in my description box. And also I put some of the ingredients that may be harder to acquire. I put the Amazon link for you guys. So in case you have to, you can buy it online. Thanks for watching everybody. See ya later.