Ingredients
- 125 grams of Vegan chicken stock
- 3.5 liters Water
- 1 stalk of Lemongrass
- 5cm piece of Fresh ginger
- 3 Indonesian bay leaf/daun salam
- 40 grams of Celery leaves
- 300 grams of Rice
- 125 grams of Bean sprouts
- 300 grams of Vegan chicken pieces
Directions
Vegan saoto soup
This soup has been and always will be my favourite soup. It’s one of those dishes I will never get tired of. When I was a kid I would always ask my mum to make it, and I’m not exaggerating when I say “always”. I would ask for it on weekdays, weekends, birthdays, Easter, Christmas, even on other people’s birthdays. I just always wanted to eat this soup!
Unfortunately it’s not originally a vegan soup. It’s traditionally made with chicken stock and I was so bummed out when I went vegan, I couldn’t eat my favourite soup anymore. The vegetable broth just didn’t do it for me. That was until I found a vegan chicken flavoured bouillon powder! It tastes just like chicken stock! I was so happy, I could eat saoto soup again! But you can, of course, use vegetable broth if you can’t find vegan chicken stock.
Daun salam
As you can see in the ingredient list, there’s an ingredient called “daun salam”. It’s also known as Indonesian bay leaf. I understand that you probably can’t find it in the regular supermarkets, but ask for it in Asian supermarkets! They usually have it in little plastic bags in the refrigirated section.
But if you can’t find it, that’s alright. It will taste just fine without it, you don’t even have to use other ingredients to substitute for the flavour of it. I just always used it because my mum said so.
Sambal ketjap and saoto mix
I put sambal ketjap in almost all of the soups I eat. I eat it with my noodles, on my rice, and sometimes even on my peanut butter sandwich. But what exactly is it, you ask? It is a sauce made from sweet soy sauce and chili. A recipe for this is coming soon!
Saoto mix is something I like almost just as much as the soup itself. It is a mixture of fried vermicelli, fried onions and fried potatoes. You add a couple of spoonfuls of this to the soup when you’re serving it.
Steps
1 Done | Bring the water to a boil in a large pot. |
2 Done | Once the water is boiling, add in the vegan chicken stock, the ginger, lemongrass, celery leaves and the Indonesian bay leaf/daun salam. |
3 Done | Bring to a boil again and simmer for at least an hour. |
4 Done | While the soup is simmering, cook the rice according to the package instructions. |
5 Done | After the soup has boiled enough, strain out the lemongrass, ginger, Indonesian bay leaves and the celery leaves. |
6 Done | To serve with the soup, there's this mixture made out of fried onions, fried vermicelli and potato crisp sticks (I don't know the English word). |
7 Done | Add some of the cooked rice, bean sprouts, vegan chicken and the fried onion/vermicelli mixture to a serving bowl. |
8 Done | I always add in sambal ketjap, a recipe for that is coming soon! |
