Spinach Egg Drop Soup

This Chinese spinach egg drop soup (苋菜蛋花汤) is so fuss-free, it can be made at short notice. I love that this egg drop soup is both a soup and veggie dish in one bowl, so I only need one other main to make dinner complete.

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Spinach Egg Drop Soup Recipe
The egg flowers (蛋花) in this soup are silky soft and tender. Together with Chinese spinach leaves & tomato, this soup is meatless and very easy on the tummy. Compared to my corn egg drop soup with a thicker soup consistency & fine delicate egg flowers, this spinach version is more soupy with larger egg “ribbons”.

Spinach Egg Drop Soup Ingredients
The main ingredients pictured above (not actual amount) are simple stuff such as tomato, garlic, ginger, egg and corn starch. For the spinach,  I always use the tender leaves of Chinese round/sharp/baby sharp spinach. One can also use western salad baby spinach leaves but that’s a lot more expensive than our local spinach.

Spinach Egg Drop Soup Recipe
Serve this dish as a soup or side dish to any Chinese meal, eat it on its own as a low carb meal, or add glass noodles to make it a simple one-dish meal.

Spinach Egg Drop Soup

Replace chicken stock with vegetable or mushroom stock for a vegetarian version of this dish.

Ingredients:

  • 600ml low-sodium chicken stock or regular stock diluted with water, to taste
  • 1 tomato cut into 6-8 wedges
  • 5 garlic cloves bruised
  • 2 thinly sliced ginger
  • cornstarch slurry dissolve 1 tsp cornstarch in 1 tbsp water
  • 80g Chinese spinach leaves (sharp/round or baby spinach)
  • 1 egg whisked
  • 4 dashes white pepper powder to taste
  • small pinch of sea salt only if needed; to taste
  • pure sesame oil to taste

Directions:

  1. Make spinach soup. Add chicken stock, tomato, garlic and ginger to a pot. Bring to a boil for 3 minutes. Stir in cornstarch slurry to thicken the soup slightly. Add spinach and cook for 20 seconds. Dish out cooked spinach into serving bowl(s). Season the soup with white pepper and salt (only if needed).
  2. Make egg drop. Bring the soup back to a boil. Using chopsticks or a spatula, stir the soup to create a whirlpool, then swirl in the egg all around the pot. Wait a few seconds and at the first sight of the egg solidifying, use chopsticks to stir the soup gently to disperse the egg. This method will yield bigger egg flowers like the photos in this recipe. For finer egg flowers, stir continuously in one direction once the egg is added in.
  3. To serve, ladle soup to serving bowls. Drizzle a few drops sesame oil for added aroma.