Ginger Tofu Soup: A Restorative Cure-All for Souper (Soup, Salad & Sammie) Sundays

This soup from Moosewood Restaurant: Cooking for Health takes the place of chicken soup when you want a veg-friendly, no-meat restorative cure-all for a stuffed up head. There is enough powerful ginger and garlic to clear the sinuses and the rice and tofu add substance. It's also incredibly quick and easy to make, good for when the last thing you feel like doing is spending time cooking. 

I made a few minor changes--in red below. 

Ginger Tofu Soup
Moosewood Restaurant: Cooking for Health
(Yields about 7 Cups)
Time: 20 minutes (with leftover rice)

1 quart (4 cups) vegetable broth (see note) (I diluted my broth w/ 2 cups water-6 cups total)
1 cup thinly sliced celery
(I added 1 carrot, thinly sliced)
2 garlic cloves, minced or pressed (I added 3 large cloves)
1/4 cup peeled ginger root matchsticks (2-inch pieces)
2 Tbsp soy sauce (I used low-sodium tamari)
1 cake of firm tofu (about 16 oz)
1 cup cooked brown rice (I used a mix of wild and brown rice)
4 scallions, cut on the diagonal 
(garnished with black sesame seeds)

Place the vegetable broth in a soup pot and bring to almost boiling. Add the celery, garlic, ginger, and soy sauce. Reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes.

Cut the tofu into small cubes and add to the pot. Gently stir in the rice. Return to a simmer and cook for 5 minutes. Add the scallions and serve.

Moosewood Note: The better the broth, the better the soup. We like Imagine or Pacific brands: our favorite for this soup is a mock chicken broth. 

Nutritional Info: (Per 1 Cup) Calories: 69, Protein: 5g, Carbohydrate: 9g, Dietary Fiber: 1g, Total Fat: 1 g, Sat. Fat: 0g, Cholesterol: 0mg, Sodium: 273mg

Notes/Results: Nourishing and flavorful and a great replacement for the chicken soup my mom insists I need to get better. ;-) The ginger and garlic flavor are strong but not overpowering. I thought the "matchsticks" of ginger would be distracting, but they are easy enough to eat around. I liked it with a squirt or two of Sriracha or other hot sauce--also very congestion clearing. Very simple, very good. I will make this soup again.

We have some delicious bowls of soup waiting in the Souper Sunday kitchen this week. Let's take a look. 

Janet of The Taste Space made this hearty Roasted Kabocha Squash Soup with Chickpeas, Leeks and Fennel and says, "This soup did not disappoint. Chickpeas and squash go so well together. Savoury cumin and fennel seeds augment the mellow fennel, leek and shallots. Ginger and chile flakes add a nice zip and lemon juice balances it all. A hearty meal in a bowl, perfect for warming up with this colder weather. A new favourite, for sure."

Graziana of Erbe in Cucina made the most of her leftovers with this Peas Soup with Pesto. She says, "I made some pesto using different varieties of basil (large leaf, cinnamon, lemon), chives and chives garlic, along with sunflower seeds, olive oil and parmesan cheese. We had the pesto with spaghetti, and then used the leftovers for this creamy soup."

Carol of There's Always Thyme to Cook... is embracing soup season with two bowls this week--Minestrone with Tomatoes and Rice and Tuscan White Bean and Garlic. She says,"I love the cooler weather. And I am looking forward to soup. Lots of soups. Hearty soups. So I went looking through past blog posts to see what's what. These are two I had forgotten about and I'm glad I went back to look. They will be on our table again very soon."

Finally Pam from Sidewalk Shoes tried this Caribbean Black Soup with Roasted Garlic and Tomatoes and says, "Normally I make my black bean soup exactly like my white bean soup, the only difference being the type of bean.  But while browsing through the cookbook, I found this recipe.   The extra step of roasting the garlic and tomatoes sounded intriguing and not too much work.  I was skeptical of a bean soup that didn’t at least have a ham bone in it.  But this was good.  Very good.  I didn’t even miss the meat!  The complexity from the roasted garlic and tomatoes was just enough to elevate this soup."

Thanks to Janet, Graziana, Carol and Pam for sharing their soups this week. If you have a soup (or salad, or sandwich) to share, just click on the Souper Sundays logo for all of the details.

Have a happy, healthy week!