White Radish with Mushrooms and Vermicelli in Chicken Soup
Soup Name:
White radish with mushrooms and vermicelli in Chicken Soup
Chinese Name:
白蘿蔔冬菇粉絲雞湯 (bái luóbo dōng gū fěn sī jī tāng)
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Sometimes, I want something relatively easy and quick to whip up all in one-pot! Make a bit of rice or noodles on the side and serve up this dish as a meal for your family.
This soup has got a healthy selection of protein and packs a volume of vegetables. You can design the vegetable of your choice, and my family loves to eat siu choy (or napa cabbage), but normal cabbage, lettuce, also go well.
You can also be selective in your mushrooms. I kind of just went with a whole bunch of fresh mushrooms from the supermarket such as fresh oyster, brown, and shiitake mushrooms. Dried mushrooms also work well, but do need more time to rehydrate.
Prep time: 15 mins
Cook time: 30 mins
Total time: 45 mins
Serves: 6 bowls
- 3 chicken thighs
- 1 whole white radish, peeled, cubed
- mushroom selection (your choice, I went with fresh oyster mushrooms, fresh brown mushrooms, and fresh shiitake mushrooms)
- 3 dried shiitake mushrooms (for flavour)
- 1 pack of dried vermicelli
- 2 small napa cabbage (or vegetable of choice) – something with a lighter taste (so the whiter / paler the vegetable is better)
- 1 tablespoon of dried conpoys
- 1 tablespoon of dried longans
- 1 tablespoon of white miso paste
- 3-4 L of water
- Soak the vermicelli in cool water for at least 10 minutes
- Chop chicken into large pieces and in a shallow pan fry skin down (no oil as needed as a lot of the fat will be rendered out). Fry on medium heat for 5-7 minutes, flipping as it browns. The chicken doesn’t need to be thoroughly cooked as it will be going into the soup anyways, you just want the edges to be a nice golden brown with a crust.
- Boil your soup water.
- Peel and chop white radish into cubes. Size is up to you depending on how much time you have. The less time, the smaller the pieces should be.
- When the soup water boils, throw in the pan-fried chicken thighs and white radish and boil on high for 10 minutes
- You can drop in the dried mushrooms, conpoys, and dragon eyes (in this case, I don’t rehydrate the mushrooms as they need a good hour sometimes, so dropping them in directly is OK)
- Cut up your napa cabbage in small pieces and drop into your soup, along with your selection of mushrooms
- Continue to boil for 10 minutes on medium heat
- Drop in 1 tablespoon of white miso and stir it around to make sure it’s dissolved.
- Finally drop in the hydrated vermicelli and boil for another 10 minutes on medium heat, covered.
- Top with chopped green onions or cilantro for taste.
- Serve and enjoy! You can add rice or noodles as part of the meal.
Some time saving tips!
- You can pre-soak the vermicelli first thing in the morning. This stuff stays pretty supple throughout the day and will only soften when boiled. If you’re going to soak them, I’d suggest to also soak the dried shiitake mushrooms, too!
- The quicker you want your soup to cook, especially the white radish, cut the pieces smaller. I like larger pieces because you can fish them out, but smaller will help if you’ve got a time crunch!
- You can replace the miso paste with a soy sauce soup base (with chicken broth) as well. I don’t use any broth powder in this case as miso is perfect on it’s own!
- Tofu is also a great quick cook ingredient to add if you want more variety. All types of tofu!
- Don’t be afraid to cook the chicken on HIGH heat. Just make sure you monitor it and turn and rotate the chicken as it browns. Remember, you don’t need to fully cook it, you just want enough of a beautiful crust and brown so it’s crispy and already bursting with flavours!
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