You can find soto in every region of Indonesia with each island having their own version of this simple delicious soup. Vegan soto is my comfort soup, on rainy days, after a hard day of work or as a late night snack. I remember going to visit my Indonesian relatives and find soto served always. Mostly with chicken and hard boiled eggs. The aroma of spices, ketoembar (coriander) and kurkuma (tumeric) made my mouth water, yet I could not eat it because I am vegan.
Thus, I developed my own soto, the vegan version. It took me awhile to find the same flavor but after endless experiments, I succeeded with a final vegan soup that can be flexible. The recipe is much simpler than the original. The key is to use the coriander plants. Also known as cilantro. The coriander, ketoembar is known as the seeds which has a warmer flavor than cilantro.
Instead of meat, tofu is added. The tofu can be made beforehand by lightly frying it, or baking if you prefer. Make sure you cut it in small pieces so it blends well in the soup. Serve this soto with rice and top it off with fried onions.
Flexible soup
What does this mean for this soto. The basic recipe calls for 4 coriander stems and 4 stalks of leek. Depending what you have in your produce basket, you can use 2 stalks of leek and less carrots.
Vegan Soto
Equipment
- 1 large cooking pot or stock pot
Ingredients
- 4 stalks leeks medium to large
- 1 stalk celery
- 4 stems coriander
- 1/2 bunch leaf celery
- 1 tsp cumin ground
- 1/2 tbsp galangal ground
- 1 tbsp tumeric ground
- 2 and 1/2 vegetable broth cube
- 5.4 cups = 1300ml water
- 3 or 4 large carrots
Instructions
- Wash and slice the leeks, leaving most of the top green parts of the plant.
- Add this to a large cooking pot with the cumin, galangal and tumeric
- Sautée in water or coconut oil until the leek is starting to look soft.
- Add the sliced carrots and 1 stalk of sliced celery.
- Add all the water and the vegetable cubes.
- Boil the soup until the carrots are tender. Now add the small fried tofu (cut in small bars) that can be made the day before.
- Add salt to tast. Wash the celery leaves and chop in pieces. Keep one that is not chopped and add it to the soup. Top off the soup with the rest of the celery leaves. Optional, add fresh raw bean sprouts. Photo: instead of tofu, tempeh is added.
- Serve hot in a soup bowl. Serve the rice in a separate bowl.