This dish was born out of delightful necessity, because we were out hiking and discovered a big cauliflower mushroom. If you’re not having any foraging luck, you could easily make this soup with a medley of mushrooms from your nearest Asian market, like enoki, shiitake, and black fungus (sounds gross, tastes great).

This recipe was modified from one outlined in this guy’s delightful video.

Ingredients:

8 cups vegetable broth (I like this one)

2 tsp soy sauce

1 tsp powdered ginger

1/4 tsp roasted sesame oil

6 tbsp corn starch

6 tbsp water

1 package firm (not extra firm) tofu

7 cups mushrooms (ish), loosely packed

1-2 green onions

Salt

Pepper

Tips:

Servings: Depending on whether this soup will be a side or a centerpiece, this recipe makes enough soup for 4-8 servings. It reheats well, and the flavors will deepen as it sits in the fridge.

Mushroom foraging: If you’ve started down the slippery slope of mushroom foraging, congrats! It’s a fun and tasty ride. But if you want to live to forage another day, it’s important to be extremely careful about ID-ing and consuming mushrooms, including: being aware of any poisonous lookalikes, always eating a small test batch first, and making sure you’re 100% certain of your ID. Finding a knowledgeable local who can show you the ropes is a great way to start, in order to reduce the potential for error. As they say, “All mushrooms are edible, but some only once.”

Recipe Instructions:

First drain and cut your tofu. The goal is to make the tofu into pleasant bite-sized pieces. I went for little rectangles, but do whatever you prefer! Also cut up one or two pieces of green onion into thin medallions, which will get sprinkled onto the soup at the end as a garnish.

Put the broth in a dutch oven or large pot over medium-high heat. Add the soy sauce, ginger, sesame oil, mushrooms, tofu, and a pinch of salt and crack of pepper to taste. Cover and bring to a boil, and then let cook for about four minutes, or until mushrooms are tender.

While the soup is cooking, mix the corn starch with six tablespoons of water in a small bowl and stir. Once combined, add it to the pot of soup and stir it all together. Continue cooking until the broth has a thick consistency reminiscent of egg-drop soup.

Once you’re happy with the consistency, transfer the soup to bowls and garnish with a sprinkle of green onions. Bon appétit — cleaning all those pine needles out of the mushroom’s nooks and crannies was worth it!