Chinese-Style Minestrone Soup
First posted in Jun 2009, updated in Nov 2016.
This is a Chinese-style soup which might resemble a western soup to you at first glance. It consists of diced vegetables (potato, onion, tomato, celery and carrot) as well as chicken.
My mum often cooked this, and when I asked her the name of this soup, she said she had no idea. So I simply called it “Chinese minestrone soup” because the way the vegetables are diced reminds me of minestrone soup.
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In fact, the taste also ends up a little similar to minestrone soup because of the tangy taste of the tomatoes. If you don’t have the patience, you can cut the vegetables to large chunks instead, and it will resemble the familiar local “ABC soup”. Somehow, the soup taste different just by the different cutting method.
Whenever I cook this soup, the kitchen is filled with the incredible aroma of the simmering vegetables. This soup is great for clearing the fridge of that last onion, potato, carrot and tomato – all in one pot.
Chinese Minestrone soup Recipe
Feel free to use more or less vegetable according to your liking. You can separate the chicken meat from the bones (it should fall off the bones easily especially if using a slow cooking) before serving.
Ingredients:
- 1/2 chicken cut to big chunks, skin removed
- 1 chicken bone optional
- 1 hard (such as “Brastagi”) potato peeled and diced
- 1 onion diced
- 2 stalks celery diced
- 1 carrot peeled and diced
- 2 tomato cut to small wedges
- water (1.2 litres for stove top OR 800 ml for slow cooker) top up whenever needed
- sea salt to taste
Directions:
First, blanch chicken and chicken bone in boiling water for 5 minutes, then rinse with cold water. Set aside.
Stove Top Method
Add 1.2 litres water, blanched chicken, onion, celery, carrot and tomato. Bring to a boil, then reduce to simmer for another 40 minutes. Keep warm in a thermal soup pot until serving.
Slow Cooker Method
In a crock-pot slow cooker, add 800 ml boiling water, blanched chicken, onion, celery, carrot and tomato. Cook at “High” for two hours (starting from the time when the soup starts bubbling, then set to simmer at “Low” or “Auto” for a few hours or until the chicken is tender and falls off the bones easily.