Vietnamese Gift Soup

[humboldt_honey]

I added tempeh, flax seed, mushroom soy sauce, and toasted sesame oil to the tofu mixture.  My grocer didn't have large leaf spinach, so I used mustard greens.  They are a bit more hardy and  were difficult to bite through.  Once you form the pocket, you tie a piece of green onion on the top.  The green leaf and the green onion are monochromatic and detract from the presentation.  The directions didn't say what to tie the pockets with, so I used celery ribs.  This is not suggested as the made me feel like I had hair at the back of my throat.  It might be okay if you removed the celery strands before eating.

It was okay.  It was basically vegetable soup with protein flair.  I'm not sure if it was the mustard greens that made the pockets too tough, the celery ribs that made me gag a bit, or the monochromatic green pocket that didn't look exciting, but I wasn't wowed.  Flavor-wise, the soup was tasty - but since it took so long to tie the pockets to make gifts, I wanted more wow.

The recipe was hard to visualize, so I reformatted it.

Vietnamese Gift Soup

In a bowl, combine:         
any kind of mushrooms, finely chopped
chopped garlic cloves, amount to preference
extra firm tofu (one package, drained), crumbled by hand           
pinch of salt, to preference
pinch of pepper, to preference
pinch of sugar

In a large soup pot, sauté:       
oil
one large yellow onion, chopped

When onion is translucent, add:   
vegetable stock
vegetable, type and amount to preference
     (carrots, cabbage, seasonal veggies)

Cover and let simmer.

In a saucepan, bring to boil:       
water

To the water, quickly drop in:       
large-leaf fresh spinach   
green onion (chives), left long

Remove the spinach and chives after only a few moments; they should remain strong but malleable. 

Lay out a spinach leaf and put a small spoonful of the tofu/mushroom mixture near the bottom; carefully roll the leaf, keeping the mixture near the middle - the rolls should be about 1 and a half inches thick.  Next, fold the two sides into the center, making a small pocket. 

Take a green onion and lay the pocket on top it

Tie the pocket with onion on top

In two directions tie pocket as a small gift with:   

After you have made all of the "gifts," place them in the broth and cook for 10 minutes on medium heat -be careful not to cook too long, as the spinach tends to fall apart after prolonged exposure to water and heat.

Serve soup over rice or with French bread, with soy sauce on the side.

Serves: 2-3

Preparation time: 30 min

[dinkfeet]

HH - I can't believe that you think your soup isn't amazing?!?!

Okay, so I haven't made it yet, but I wanted to review your photo of the dish - it's incredible. I'll take a whack at this and tell you what I think, but I'm too intimidated to add a second-rate picture

[formercarnivor]

this looks really good! my last partner was vietamese and he used to make me pho all the time.  love me some pho! does anyone have a good vegan reciepie for pho?