I am a sucker for Chinese food. Give me some hot and sour soup and anything stir fried and you have the key to my stomach! I have loved hot and sour soup since I was little and my mom took my sister and I to a Chinese restaurant called THE. It stands for something like Three Happiness Express, but we always called it THE. The restaurant would give you soup before your meal and I always got hot and sour. The problem with hot and sour from a restaurant is that I don’t know what all the little things floating in there are. I can recognize the tofu (which I pick out) and the bamboo shoots (which I love), but as far as the other stuff goes, I avoid it! I love that I could make my own hot and sour and know exactly what I put in it. I took the advice of the blogger I got this recipe from and put in a little extra red pepper flakes to turn up the heat, but Scotty and I were coughing all through dinner. The heat was turned up a little too much for our throats to handle. The awesome thing about this recipe was that out of the three servings it made, each serving was only 63 calories!! With a soup this low in calories I got to eat an extra egg roll and not feel guilty. The egg rolls were very simple to make. Make sure you really let the mixture cool down before filling the egg roll wrappers because I made the impatient mistake of not waiting and the wrapper tore. Half the recipe made us 7 egg rolls with each roll having 176 calories. Happy Eating!
Egg Roll Wraps
I got this recipe off the back of the egg roll package
Ingredients:
1 package egg roll wraps
1 lb ground pork
1 tsp minced ginger
2 cups cabbage, finely chopped
¼ lb bean sprouts
½ cup carrot, shredded
3 green onions, finely chopped
2 tbsp oyster sauce
non-stick cooking spray
olive oil, for brushing
dipping sauce
Directions:
Stir fry meat and ginger in skillet over high heat until lightly browned, 2-3 minutes. Add cabbage, bean sprouts, carrots, and green onions, cook 2 minutes. Stir in oyster sauce. Let mixture cool. Use 2 tablespoons, filling for each egg roll. Fold bottom corner over filling, then fold in side corners. Brush top with water and roll up wrap tightly to enclose filling, sealing roll with top flap.
Baking Option: Heat over to 400 degrees F. Place rolls on a baking sheet coated with non-stick cooking spray. Lightly brush the tops with olive oil and bake until golden brown, about 10-12 minutes. (You could also fry these, but I opted for the healthier version)
Hot and Sour Soup
Recipe thanks to Stephanie O’Dea
Ingredients:
serves 2-3
–1 cup cubed firm tofu ( I didn’t put the tofu in)
–2 cups chicken broth
–2 cups water
–1 package of sliced mushrooms
–1 can bamboo shoots
–1 can sliced water chestnuts
–2 tablespoon soy sauce (La Choy is gluten-free)
–1 teaspoon sesame oil
–2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
–1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes (and some more later)
–green onion for garnish
Directions:
Combine everything in your slow cooker. Cook on low for 7-9 hours or high 4-5.
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 very hot and sour, so I added another 1 tablespoon of the vinegar and another 1/4 teaspoon of the pepper flakes. Garnish with sliced green onion.
