Cucumber Soup with Dried Beancurd Sticks

Introduction:

I had once been to a Sichuan restaurant in the Dongmen area of Shenzhen.  A cucumber soup impressed me very much. Since then, I have been considering about cooking one myself.

Fortunately, I have found such a soup recipe in a vegetarian cookbook. So I couldn’t wait to cook it and share with my website readers.

What I cooked is not perfect. I should have changed one step that I did it. But the taste of the soup is alright. You will come up with better results, if you avoid the mistakes that I made.

Ingredients:

Dried bean curd sticks: 100 g

Cucumber: 100 g (or one medium-sized)

Seasonings:

Chopped scallion: 1 teaspoon

Sliced ginger: 3 slices

Salt: 2 g

MSG: 1 g

Vegetable soup stock: 200 g

Vegetable oil: 20 g

Preparation Work:

1. Put the dried bean curd sticks into lukewarm water, chop them into pieces after they are softened;

2. Rinse and slice the cucumbers (around 2 mm thick);

Cooking Steps:

1. Pour the vegetable oil into the preheated wok;

2. Drop the chopped scallion and ginger slices into the oil;

3. Pour the vegetable soup stock into the wok;

4. Drop the beancurd sticks pieces in (This is the step that I don’t want you to do as the cookbook says. I changed this step here. I will explain later.);

5. Boil what’s in the wok;

6. Skim the foams at the surface;

7. Add the cucumber slices into the wok;

8. Ad the other seasonings including salt and MSG into the soup;

9. Dish it out after 2 minutes.

Cooking Tips:

1. I did as the cookbook reads. However, the cucumber turned out to be dark in color. However, what I saw in the aforementioned Sichuan restaurant is very fresh green cucumber.

So I recommend add the cucumber slices into the soup later in the process.

Anyway, cucumber is a vegetable that can be eaten raw. You will see that the sliced cucumber will get very green after immersing in the hot water. Then if cooked more, they will lose the color.

2. Vegetable soup stock is also very important in this recipe because they can enhance the flavor of the soup. Read this post about how to make soup stock.

Related recipes:

1. Stir Fried Cucumber Slices with Bean Curd Sticks
2. Stir-fried Dried Bean Curd Sticks with Green Chili Peppers
3. Stir Fried Sour Cucumber Slices
4. Cucumber Recipes – Stir Fried
5. Quick Cucumber Recipe
6. Dough Drop and Assorted Vegetable Soup
7. Hot and Sour Soup Recipe – Daikon Radish
8. Radish Soup
9. Seaweed Recipes – Soup with Tofu
10. Cabbage Soup Recipe – Milky