I made this the other night for my husband and my sister. Only halfway through constructing the soup did we find out that we were all out of soy sauce. We' weren't going to just quit so I opened up the fridge and looked for a substitute. We ended up throwing in some fish sauce and some oyster sauce to replace the absent soy sauce. In the end my sister and I both really liked it and my husband wouldn't even eat his. However I'm adding the recipe to my favorites; i'll just make sure I actually have the soy sauce before I make it again. I might use vegetable broth and replace the chicken with tofu to try it vegetarian style next time. Final words: good flavor for such a low calorie soup packed with so many vegetables. -Mrs.C
I also love this recipe -- i did not find a fresh fennel bulb so threw in a few fennel seeds instead -- followed the recipe pretty closely but also added sliced water chestnuts. saved about half of the bean sprouts bok choy and green onions to add when i reheated for lunch at work and that worked well.
Yummy! Made this today after looking for a recipe that will help build immune system - feeling a cold kick in and wanted to fight it off. I prepared the ingredients before getting the cooking going - found this to make things soooo much easier. I also added a little of sirachi to the soy sauce. I definitely suggest this recipe. We didn't even miss the noodles found in most chicken soups; the bean sprouts and other veggies were amazing. Pros: Balance of Greens & Sweet with Spice Crunch from Bean Sprouts and Cons: Lots of Ingredients - but this is not a con!!:)
Take time to get all of the ingredients. You can buy the star anise at Chinese grocery stores.The only substitute I made was spinach instead of Bok Choy. I couldn't get to the Asian store which is 10 miles from here. Luckily I keep the other things around. This is a truly delicious recipe. The cilantro and sesame seed oil as toppings really add a lot of extra flavor. If you have anyone in your family who is not into peppery cut the pepper down to 1/4 tsp. Even at a 1/2 tsp. it is very very peppery. I never leave comments but this is so good if your tastes run to Asian food that I had to tell you.
I have made it several times. The broth works quite well. Sometimes I add a bit of fish sauce or rice wine vinegar. The veg party I use what I have on hand sliced thin and added according to cooking time needed. Adding peanuts or other nuts or seeds on top bulks up the the soup especially if I'm short on meat. This basic recipe is a keeper.
Take the time to get all of the ingredients. The star anise is available at Chinese grocery stores. I only made one substitution spinach instead of bok choy. I couldn't get out to the Chinese store. Luckily I keep the rest of the ingredients around. The cilantro and sesame seed oil add a lot of flavor. Don't omit them. I never leave comments. However this is so good if you like Asian food that I just had to let you know. If you don't like peppery recipes cut the pepper to 1/4. Even at a 1/2 it was very peppery.
This soup was wonderful although I should note that I made a lot of substitutions. I didn't have bok choy or bean sprouts so in addition to the fennel I added a lot of additional carrots. As the recipe notes this would be good with pretty much any veggies you have around. The key to the flavors are the dried mushrooms the ginger the soy sauce and the scallions---so I think I would consider them NECESSARY for the soup but everything else could be substituted. Oh yeah I also didn't have a cinnamon stick so I used one shake of powdered (worked fine--smelled very interesting there at the beginning!) and I didn't star anise so we went without. I decided to add Asian noodles (I used Japanese somen noodles) so I could tell the kids it was "Asian chicken noodle soup." The 9-year-old liked it; the 5-year-old found it tolerable after adding Parmesan cheese (in her mind if there are noodles there should be parm....ah well she's only 5). I had never served fennel to my family before and worried that it would taste too strongly of licorice (which my family likes but I didn't know how they'd feel about it for dinner)--but no one said anything about it; I guess the cooking mellows the flavor. The sesame oil and sriracha sauce were wonderful additions. Anyway I loved it. Thanks EW!
Made this today and found it delicious and totally enjoyable. I would make two suggestions: edit the measurement for the ginger 61/8" slices looks like six and 1/8 inches of sliced ginger. I peeled a six inch piece of ginger and then saw the 1/8th inch which made me look closer and realize the mistake I was just about to make. Secondly beware the whites of the bok coy cook quickly and become mush. Next time I will add a greater variety of vegetables. I also appreciated the heads-up on cutting in advance this saved time and made the actual cook time simpler.
