Egg Drop Soup

Egg drop soup, also called egg flower soup, is about as simple as it gets: a nice broth, lightly thickened with starch, and filled with lovely ribbons of egg. It is easy to make at home, and is something that we eat pretty regularly because it is delicious, warming, and we nearly always have the ingredients on hand (you probably do too).

There really isn’t much to making egg drop soup, so there isn’t too much to write about either. Make sure to use a good broth, as that’s where most of the flavor comes from. Other than that, all you need to do is spice it up a bit with white pepper and sesame oil, thicken it with some starch, and create those lovely little ribbons of egg.

After you read this recipe, and you understand its simplicity, you will no longer have an excuse not to make egg drop soup every time you cook Chinese food.

Egg Drop Soup
Serves 2-4

Ingredients:
6 cups chicken or vegetable broth
2 tbsp cornstarch
½ tsp white pepper
½ tsp sesame oil
2 eggs, beaten
2 scallions, thinly sliced, to garnish

Directions:
Make a slurry of 2 tbsp cornstarch and 2 tbsp water. Then pour the slurry into the cold broth while stirring. Add the white pepper as well.

Bring the broth to a rolling boil over high heat, stirring often. Once boiling, reduce heat to medium.

Stir aggressively in a circle to create motion in the broth and slowly pour in the beaten eggs in a thin stream while continuing to stir. The speed of the whirlpool will decide the size of your egg ribbons–the faster you stir, the smaller they will be.

Remove from heat, add sesame oil, adjust seasonings as needed, and serve hot. Garnish with scallion greens.

Enjoy!