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Tomato Egg Flower Soup
This is a superbly easy recipe, which even your kids can pull together. Highly nutritious, and ideal if you have homemade stock, since the flavour of the stock shines through. Chicken stock would be perfect, but you could use vegetarian stock, if you prefer.
I saw the original recipe in Ken Hom’s book, but have amended it slightly since. I am assuming it’s called “egg flower” because the eggs set in pretty swirls. There is a very similar Japanese version of this soup, where the main difference is the addition of some fine strips of Nori or roasted seaweed as a garnish, which is also quite delicious. Serve with a dash of chilli oil if desired.
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Tomato Egg Flower soup
You just need good stock and a handful of ingredients, most of which you will have on hand. None of the measurements need be exact. The final flavour is very much dependent on how you like it, so feel free to adjust the seasonings. In case you are using pre-salted stock, cut the salt out completely. In Hom’s recipe, he suggests blanching the tomatoes to remove the skin, but I often don’t bother. Also purists wouldn’t add soy sauce to the soup, but offer it as a condiment on the table but I love the flavour of the light soy sauce. Chinese soups traditionally use white pepper (which is stronger than black pepper) but use black if that’s all you have.