Meatball & Egg Tofu Soup
This is a basic, non spicy Thai soup, made more for children than anything, but when I made this on 11 Aug 2018, the entire Thai family loved it. Not only did they enjoy it for dinner, they enjoyed it again (as did I) for breakfast the next morning. The ingredients are simple, flavorful, and nutritious. For readers in the US and Canada, you can find the various meatballs and egg tofu in most Asian markets. Read the Variants in the Recipe Notes section as there is many ways you can prepare this.
Ingredients
- 800 grams fish balls, (28 oz)
- 2 cubes mushroom stock
- 2 bunches spring onions, chopped, white and green parts
- 1-2 bunches cilantro, chopped
- 1-2 handfuls fresh oyster mushrooms, torn into bite size pieces
- 420 gram egg tofu, (15 oz)
- oyster sauce, to taste
- soy sauce, to taste
Instructions
- Fill a large pot about 1/3 full of water, add the stock cubes and bring to boil. The pot I am using here is my pressure cooker pot, this is NOT a pressure cooker recipe, I use the pot because it is a heavy thick walled pot.
- The brand of fish balls I used, each bag, vacuum sealed, is 400 grams (14 oz) and I used bags. These are the large fish ball. For readers in the US and Canada, these will be in the frozen or fridge section of an Asian market.
- Empty the fish balls onto a cutting board, use a knife and cut an X on opposite sides of each ball.
- Add the fish balls to the pot, and reduce heat to a simmer and let the fish balls cook through. They will swell as they cook.
- Chop the spring onion and cilantro and add to the pot and stir in. Here you can see the X's on the fish balls, the reason for doing this is more surface area to absorb the stock flavor.
- After about 15 more minutes of simmering, add the mushrooms and stir in.
- Continue to simmer for 10-15 minutes to cook the mushrooms and get them nice and tender.
- This is the egg tofu I used, it comes in a tube. Cut the end of each tube off and the tofu will slide right out. Slice into 1/4 inch thick slices.
- Add the egg tofu to the pot and stir in, simmer for about 15 minutes to heat the tofu through. Season to taste with soy sauce and oyster sauce, a splash or two of each works well.
- Ladle into bowls and enjoy.
Notes
This makes a large amount of soup. The fish balls were 104 Baht for both packages, egg tofu was 40 Baht, and the oyster mushrooms were free (I use a really good vendor). For 8 servings, this is about 55 cents per serving.
Variants: 1. Use any meatballs you like, such as fish, pork, chicken & pork, seafood, and shrimp. 2. Use any stock you like, such as chicken, pork, shrimp, vegetable, and mushroom. 3. Use any mushrooms such as Straw, Shiitake, Shimeji, Oyster, or button. 4. Add any any of the following, glass noodles, egg noodles, carrot, daikon, or even hard boiled quail or chicken eggs. 5. Serve with rice if desired.
Common Thai soup.