Recipe: Egg Flower Soup (Egg Drop Soup)

the appetizer:

Learn to cook authentic Chinese food in minutes with Quick & Easy Chinese by Nancie McDermott. Recipes include Green Onion Pancakes; Egg Flower Soup; and Shrimp Egg Foo Yong.

Cookbook

Egg Flower Soup

Serves 4

Often listed as Egg Drop Soup in Chinese restaurants, this dish's poetic name of Egg Flower Soup celebrates the way eggs "blossom" as they are stirred gently into simmering stock. If you use canned broth or frozen chicken stock, this soup makes a perfect busy-night dish. If you make chicken stock, this dish showcases its deep flavor with delicious simplicity. Either way, Egg Flower Soup rounds out any rice-centered meal, and it can be served in big bowls over rice as a one-dish dinner. Plan to stir in the eggs just before serving for the most wonderful texture and beauty.

4 cups chicken stock
2 cups baby spinach leaves (optional)
1/2 teaspoon Asian sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 well-beaten eggs
3 tablespoons thinly sliced green onion

In a medium saucepan, bring the chicken stock to a rolling boil over medium-high heat. Stir in the spinach leaves, if using, sesame oil, and salt, allowing the spinach to wilt into the soup.

Stir well until the chicken broth is swirling in circles. Carefully and slowly pour the beaten eggs onto the surface of the soup, continuing to stir gently and encouraging them to flow out into leafy petals and ribbons.

Sprinkle the green onion onto the soup and serve hot.