Vegetable Manchow Soup

Manchow Soup is a very popular street food in China sold in push carts. It is a spicy soup made with vegetables, soy sauce and sprinkled with crispy fried noodles and drizzled with tiny drops of chilli oil.

 

 

This recipe is for vegetable Manchow Soup. You can add carrots, green beans, cabbage, colourful bell peppers, cauliflower. Go ahead and add cooked chicken pieces along with vegetables for the chicken manchow soup.

Recipe Source : http://spusht.blogspot.in/2012/02/manchow-soup-indo-chinese-food.html

Recipe for 4 Servings

Ingredients

• 2 Cups Mixed Vegetables ( I used Shredded carrots, finely chopped green beans, green bell peppers)
• 1 Tablespoon Sesame Seed Oil
• 2 Tablespoon Spring Onion whites chopped finely
• 1 Teaspoon Ginger Chopped Finely
• 2 Teaspoon Garlic crushed and chopped finely
• 1 Tablespoon Cilantro chopped finely
• 1 Tablespoon Fresh Mint Leaves chopped finely
• 2 Tablespoon Tomatoes chopped finely
• 4 Cups Water
• 1 Tablespoon Soy Sauce
• 1 Teaspoon Chilli Sauce
• 2 Tablespoon Corn Starch + 1/2 Cup water  - to thicken the soup
• 1 Teaspoon Vinegar 

 

For Garnish

• 2 Tablespoon Spring Onion greens chopped
• Chilli Oil ( Recipe follows)
• Crispy fried Noodles ( Recipe Follows) 

For the Chilli Oil

• 2 Tablespoon Vegetable Oil
• 3 Dry Red Chillies  

For the Crispy Fried Noodles

• 1 Packet of Chinese Noodles
• 1 and 1/2  Teaspoon of Oil
• 1 Teaspoon salt
• Oil for deep frying the noodles

Directions  

1. Prepare Chilli Oil : In a small sauce pan heat 2 tablespoon oil at high flame. Let the oil get heated till smoking point. Switch off the flame and add broken red chillies in the hot oil. Let the oil cool completely.  Strain the oil through a metal strainer and discard the dry red chillies. Chilli infused oil is ready for serving. Set aside

2. Prepare Crispy Fried Noodles : In a large pot bring 4 to 5 cups of water to boil. Add salt and 1 teaspoon oil. Then add the Chinese noodles and cook as per the instructions on the noodles packet. Cook noodles to al dente. I cooked my noodles for 2 minutes. Immediately drain water completely and toss 1/2 teaspoon oil in the cooked noodles. This will ensure they wont stick together. Transfer the noodles to a dry clean kitchen cloth and let them dry for 30 minutes. Heat oil for deep frying the noodles. When the oil is hot, add about 2 tablespoon of noodles in hot oil. Keep the flame high and fry until they are crispy and golden. Make sure you dry the noodles, otherwise they will splutter the moment you add them to the hot oil. Stay away from oil when you drop noodles. Fry the noodles in batches and drain them on paper towel. I would suggest preparing the fried noodles the day before and store them in airtight container
                                  

                                  

3. Prepare Soup : In a pan, heat 1 tablespoon oil. When the oil is hot , add spring onion whites, ginger, garlic, mint and cilantro leaves. Fry until the garlic turns light golden

                                  

                                   


4. Add chopped vegetables and fry on high flame for 2 minutes

            

5. Add tomatoes and fry quickly for few seconds

                                 


6. Then add soy sauce, chilli sauce and stir everything. Add water, salt , pepper to taste

                                


7. Bring it to boil and let the vegetables get cooked for 3 to 4 minutes. Soup tastes good if the vegetables are crunchy
8. In a small bowl add corn starch and 1/2 cup water and stir

                              


9. Now, add this corn starch mixture to the soup as a steady slow stream and mix continuously while you are adding the corn starch to the soup. This is done to avoid lumps

                              


10. Give it a nice stir and add vinegar and stir

11. Let the soup come to boil. Switch off the flame

12. For Serving : Serve hot ; Transfer soup to the serving soup bowl. Add few drops on chilli oil over the soup. Sprinkle crispy fried noodles over the soup. Sprinkle chopped spring onion greens over the soup and serve hot