Egg drop soup is perfect

The perfect effort:reward ratio does exist

Hi hi HI, my fellow broth fiends, friends (or as my partner, Natalie, has started to say BROTH BADDIES),

Pull up a chair. How are we doing? Yesterday was my thirty first birthday and, to celebrate, we headed to New Zealand. For the past few days, I have been on a little broth break while other people cook me delicious meals (I am hanging out for some soup though, I have to be honest) and I soak up the bounty of nature.

While I take it easy, I thought this week we could talk about a soup that is the epitome of easy pleasurable eating. Egg drop soup.

Egg drop soup, I love you. The warm, creamy, salty, savouriness just feels like a warm hug around your heart. I think I could eat egg drop soup every day and never tire of it. It works for every meal (I love it for breakfast). It comes together in minutes and it also serves as a perfect backdrop for variations so you can shake it up if eating the same thing again and again isn’t really your jam.

You get variations of egg drop soup across cultures (or you veer into other kinds of egg thickeners like Greek avgolemono) but the most widely known / beloved is the Chinese style egg drop soup - topped with spring onion, sesame oil and white pepper and often bespecked with other jewels like sweet corn, chicken or crab. The second is probably the Italian stracciatella soup with the deep salty weaving of parmesan.

I love mine many ways but I have one non negotiable - BIG SILKY EGG RIBBONS. I do not like egg droplets - it’s a textural preference so the methods outlined below will be for larger egg ribbons / blooms. It’s best to use your own homemade chicken broth for this because there are only a few ingredients and we want them all to shine.

BUCKLE UP, BROTH FIENDS. Let’s get into it.

Egg drop soup

Shopping list

• 1 litre of chicken broth (make your own with this recipe)

• Pinch of turmeric (optional but gives it a gorgeous golden hue)

• 3 eggs beaten until smooth - I like to fully incorporate them but you can leave some separation between white and yolk if you prefer

• 1 teaspoon of corn starch (and two teaspoons of cold water to make a slurry)

• Sesame oil

• Spring onions (chopped for garnish)

• Ground pepper (white or black)

Method

1. Heat your chicken broth and let it simmer gently

2. Beat your eggs

3. Make the corn starch slurry

   1. For this, mix corn starch and cold water in a bowl

   2. Make sure it is fully incorporated before you add it into your broth, otherwise you will get clumps of corn starch in your soup

   3. Give it a good stir before you add it, as it will settle quickly once you mix it

   4. If you like your soup thick, you can add more starch, I recommend starting with this and seeing what texture your broth gets too after a few minutes, then adding more if you like!

4. Add your corn starch slurry into the warm broth, stirring continuously so you don’t get any clumps

5. Once your broth is at a rapid simmer, make a whirlpool in the broth by stirring in a clockwise motion with your ladle or a wooden spoon

6. Stream your eggs into the saucepan in a a counter clockwise motion (the idea is to go the opposite way to the broth ‘whirlpool’)

7. Gently agitate the egg back and forth with your ladle but don’t stir too vigorously or you’ll break the eggs ribbons up

8. Remove from heat and add sesame oil, pepper, and spring onion greens

9. Eat from the saucepan, if you’re greedy like me

Egg drop soup with sweet corn, spring onion, sesame oil

• As above, but add your sweet corn into the hot broth and let it simmer for ten minutes before moving on to the corn starch slurry and eggs.

Egg drop soup with shiitake and wood ear fungus

Shopping list

• 2 cups of chicken broth

• Pinch of turmeric

• 3 shiitake mushrooms (sliced)

• 5 black fungus (rehydrated from dried or fresh)

• 1 egg beaten

• 1 teaspoon of corn starch (and two teaspoons of cold water to make a slurry)

• Sesame oil

• Spring onions (chopped - whites for the soup simmer and greens for garnish)

• Ground pepper

Method

1. Heat your chicken broth and let it simmer gently with the mushrooms, turmeric, and spring onion whites for 10 - 15 mins

2. Beat your egg

3. Make the corn starch slurry

4. Add your corn starch slurry and stir continuously so you don’t get any clumps

5. Once your broth is at a rapid simmer, make a whirlpool by stirring the broth in a clockwise motion

6. Stream your eggs in a counter clockwise motion

7. Gently agitate the egg back and forth with your ladle but don’t stir too vigorously or you’ll break the eggs ribbons up

8. Remove from heat and add sesame oil, pepper, and spring onion greens

Egg drop soup with basil and parmesan butter toast

Shopping list

• Sourdough

• 2 cups of chicken broth

• 1 tbsp butter

• Pinch of turmeric

• Herbs (I used basil leaves and parsley in the butter and the broth, I used the basil stems to infuse the broth while it cooked)

• Grated parmesan (plus from rind for the broth if you like!)

• Cracked black pepper

• 1 clove of garlic

• 2 eggs beaten

• 1 teaspoon of corn starch (and two teaspoons of cold water to make a slurry)

Method

1. Toast your bread in the oven (when it comes out hot, we are going to rub it with the raw garlic clove)

2. For the parm butter, grate your parmesan and combine with the butter in a bowl, add fresh black pepper and a pinch of your herbs

3. Spread on your hot bread before serving

4. Heat your chicken broth and let it simmer gently with the basil stems, turmeric, and parmesan rind for 10 - 15 mins

5. Beat your eggs and make the corn starch slurry

6. Remove the rind and basil stems from the broth

7. Add your corn starch slurry and stir continuously so you don’t get any clumps

8. Once your broth is at a rapid simmer, make a whirlpool by stirring the broth in a clockwise motion

9. Stream your eggs in a counter clockwise motion

10. Gently agitate the egg back and forth with your ladle but don’t stir too vigorously or you’ll break the eggs ribbons up

11. Remove from heat and add herbs and olive oil

12. Serve hot and dunk your butter bread into the goodness!

THE SKY IS THE LIMIT here really for variations - you could add chopped tomatoes for sweetness, miso for a silky savoury depth, different proteins or more. I hope you love it as much as I do <3

And here are a few little snaps from our New Zealand getaway!

Yours in broth and the full flavours of living,

Tahlia xoxox (BROTH FIEND)