I made up some baked tofu, following my Spicy Ginger Baked Tofu recipe and added it to a simple veggie broth I made for the mushroom gravy on my Turkey Meatloaf in Mushroom Gravy. After the broth came to a boil, I added some Udon noodles and cooked them in the broth. Just ladle it into a bowl, add some baked tofu, and enjoy… with chopsticks.

Here is a simple soup recipe. I had some frozen broth from a Baked Tofu and Coconut Soup I made, so I used the rest of that broth and improved upon the tofu. I’m no authority here, but you can probably call this a vegetarian pho.

Here’s the marinade for the firm, frozen, thawed, pressed, sliced tofu:

• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 2 TB toasted sesame oil
• 1 TB onion powder
• 1 TB garlic powder
• 1 tsp fresh ginger, grated
• 2 TB sweet soy sauce (Kecap Manis)
• 1/2-1 TB Chinese chili paste
• 1.5 c white wine
• 1/2 cup water

This soup has a few different steps, but all are quite easy and worth the extra effort. Use fresh ginger root of you can’t find galangal. Also, I made this recipe with the Vita-Mix in mind. If you don’t have one, please let me know how the stock turns out using a standard blender.

Soup Stock Ingredients:

• 1 yellow or white onion
• 2 cloves garlic
• 4 cups water (to start…you can add more as the stock cooks)
• 2 TB soy sauce
• 3-4 chunks of galangal root (pieces the size of your thumb)
• 5-6 thai chilies
• 1 small can of coconut milk

To start the broth, cut the onion into a few pieces and put it in the Vita-Mix with the garlic and some water. Puree this into a smooth consistency for a few seconds until it looks like a milky broth. Pour it into a stock pot to start the stock.

Add the rest of the 4 cups of water, the chilies, soy sauce, galangal root, and simmer for 30 minutes before adding the coconut milk.

While the stock is cooking, bake your tofu that has already been frozen, thawed, pressed, and marinated. I made a Ginger Baked Tofu from an earlier recipe.

When the tofu is done, remove it from the oven. Bring some water to a boil to cook some rice noodles. The noodles I used had me boil them for a few minutes and then drain and rinse in cool water.

When all of the components are done, pick out the large pieces of galangal from the broth. Then add some fresh spinach to wilt it. Put some noodles in a bowl, arrange some pieces of tofu, ladle on some broth, and add more soy sauce and sriracha to taste. Enjoy.

This soup was delicious because of the tofu. The stock is very simple and not overpowering, but it complemented the tofu very well.

There are a few steps to making this soup. I made a stock from kitchen scraps rather than use a pre-made stock, so that took some time, but it was worth the effort. Ever since getting a Vita-Mix, I have lots of kitchen scraps, like pieces of celery, carrot, apple, and pear. I plan to use them in soup stocks now rather than buy a store-bought brand.

For the soup, I started with the stock recipe below. To that, I added one yellow onion, chopped, 5 cloves of minced garlic, and 1/2 TB freshly grated ginger. I let this boil for 15 minutes and then added some frozen peas. I poured this over the baked tofu.

Baked Tofu Ingredients:

• 1 package of firm tofu, frozen, thawed, and pressed
• 2 TB soy sauce
• 1 TB toasted sesame oil
• 1/2 TB onion powder
• 1/2 TB garlic powder
• 1/2 TB freshly grated ginger
• Sriracha- add as much spice as you like
• 2 cups water

Soup Stock Ingredients:

• 4 stalks celery
• 2 carrots
• 1/2 yellow onion
• the core from a pear
• 2 cloves garlic
• water
• 3 TB soy sauce