Better than Take Out: Egg Drop Soup

Continuing with the theme "better than takeout", we made Egg Drop soup the day after Christmas, using the leftover turkey as a soup base.

I started first, as soon as we had trimmed the turkey before Christmas dinner, to prepare a soup stock with the remains of the turkey. It is difficult to get all of the meat off of the bones, so I simply covered the whole thing as best as I could in water, and stuck it back in the roaster. I added 2 whole carrots and 2 whole ribs of celery, as well as an onion, and some seasonings (in this case, salt, pepper, and parsley).

You can either prepare your stock using leftover meat on the bone, whole chicken, or simply by mixing soup base into water. Strain out the vegetables and extra meat. I usually reserve those for later use. With the turkey stock, I skimmed the extra fat off the surface too. Stock prepared with meat can be stored in the refrigerator, or frozen for later use. I've even canned it.

Bring your strained stock to a boil, and add some oriental spices to it. In this case, I added a pinch of a spice blend called "Oriental Five Spices" (sometimes called "Chinese Five spices") and I also added a whole star anise, which I later removed after the stock had simmered.
I also added lemon grass, ginger, and garlic, as well as a dash of soy sauce to taste.

Mix 1 cup of cold water with 2T of corn starch until there are no lumps. Pour the corn starch mixture into the soup stock, and mix well until the soup begins to thicken. You don't want it to become "gravy" but it should be thicker than simply broth.


In a separate bowl, mix 2-3 eggs together until slightly frothy. As the soup boils, gently pour the egg into the soup, a little bit at a time. The egg will immediately poach in the soup water.


Serve your soup immediately, garnished with green onions.