Yesterday, I spent the afternoon reading through all the vegan cookbooks I’ve acquired over the last year. Of course, the one I turned down the most pages in was Isa Chandra Mosowitz’s Isa Does It. Her recipes always sound so appealing and invariably turn out brilliantly.

Having an abundance of cremini and dried shiitake mushrooms, I decided to make her Shroomy Hot and Sour Soup, and it is indeed delicious and much quicker than my previous hot and sour soup recipe, which was made in a crockpot and took several hours.

So…here we go!

Ingredients:

• 1 ounce dried shiitake mushrooms (Isa calls for dried wood ear mushrooms, but I had only dried shiitake, plus wood ear mushrooms kinda gross me out)
• 2 cups boiling water
• 2 teaspoons sesame oil
• 2 cloves minced garlic
• 1 TBS fresh ginger, minced
• 4 cups vegetable broth
• 1/4 cup rice vinegar
• 3 Tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 tsp sugar
• 2 tsp sriracha
• 1 (8 ounce) can bamboo shoots, drained
• 5 ounces fresh cabbage, thinly sliced
• 14 ounces of tofu, diced
• 4 ounces cremini mushrooms
• 1 TBS cornstarch
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 cup chopped green onions

Soak the dried shiitake mushrooms in the boiling water overnight. Retain the soaking water.

I used a flat-bottomed wok for the soup and it worked rather well!

Heat the wok for a minute or two and then add the sesame oil. Allow it to heat up and then saute the garlic and ginger for thirty seconds. Add the soaking water from the mushrooms, broth, vinegar, soy sauce, sriracha, sugar, bamboo shoots, and bring to a boil. Lower to a simmer, add the tofu and cook for five minutes.

Mix the cornstarch and water in the bullet and pour into the soup. Add the sliced cremini mushrooms.

The final product is absolutely delicious!!

When you serve it, top with the sliced green onions.