Hot and Sour Soup

One of you, and I'm sorry that I can't remember who, linked me up with this blog. Thank you, whoever you are. I really enjoyed reading it! This gal loves her crockpot and vowed to make something in a crockpot every day for an entire year. It was a fascinating blog to follow - she got very creative with the types of meals, snacks, desserts, and drinks that she whipped up in her slow cooker. If you like to use a crock pot, or are thinking about it, you should check out her site for some ideas. There are 365 of them.

She raved about this Chinese Hot and Sour soup (way back on day 13) and it just sounded really good to me, so I tried it tonight. I was not disappointed. It's simple and healthy, but has nice flavor, especially if you add some more rice vinegar to your personal serving before slurping this up. I also LOVE the flavor of sesame oil, so I added just a little extra of that while I was throwing everything in.

Hot and Sour Soup

adapted from A Year of Crockpotting

cooked, diced chicken
2 cups chicken broth
cups water
1 package of sliced mushrooms
1 can bamboo shoots
1 can sliced water chestnuts

diced celery (I used about 3 stalks)

diced carrots (I used about a cup)
2T soy sauce (I used low sodium)

1t sesame oil
2T rice wine vinegar (and some more later)
1/4t red pepper flakes (and some more later)
green onion for garnish


Combine everything in your crockpot.
Cook on low for 7-9 hours or high 4-5. Taste. If you need more of the sour flavor, add more rice wine vinegar. If you need more of the hot flavor, add more red pepper flakes. I like my soup pretty hot and sour, so I added about another 1tbl of the vinegar and another 1/2 tsp of the pepper flakes. Garnish with sliced green onion.

My notes: I used a 6 quart crock pot. Crockpot lady used 1 cup of firm cubed tofu, but I used about 1 1/2 cooked, diced chicken breasts instead. I also added celery and carrots (whatever amount you want). I cooked mine on low for 9 hours, but that's just the timing that worked out. I could have easily eaten it a few hours earlier too.