Clear Soup Recipe (Clear Vegetable Soup)

Clear Soup Recipe with video & step by step photos – A detailed post on how to make healthy & delicious vegetable clear soup at home. Clear soup is a soup that is made by simmering veggies, & or meat in a liquid until all the flavors are released. These soups are clear and are great for those on a liquid diet. Clear soups are made without the addition of any spices, starch or any other flavoring ingredients. But there are so many versions made across the world and some are made even without the addition of any oil or fats.

About Clear Soup

Clear soup is made differently in various cuisines. I have shared the method I follow at home. It is a 2 step process where firstly all the veggies are simmered to make a vegetable stock. Next some more veggies are sautéed with ginger & garlic. Then simmered in the prepared stock.

This 2 step process makes the clear soup extremely flavorful & delicious similar to the one you get in Asian Restaurants.

In this post I have shown making vegetarian clear soup but have also added the details of how I make the chicken clear soup. It is just one step process that is different from the veggie version so thought of sharing it here in the same post.

Some times I am left with lots of veggies at the end of the week and don’t know what to do. Then I resort to this awesome way of using up all of them at one time.

Wow! the clear soup tastes awesome when served piping hot with some noodles or fried rice on the side. My kids usually love dumping their noodles in the soup and add some pepper and dried herbs.

You can flavor up with whatever you like but the basic clear soup is made and served as is plain without any spices.

What vegetables to put in clear soup?

Clear soup is usually made with veggies like carrots, french beans, mushrooms, cabbage, bok choy, cauliflower, broccoli, yellow onion, celery stalks & sweet corn.

How is clear soup made?

• Simmer all the veggies in water and strain the vegetable stock.
• Saute garlic, ginger and some more veggies in oil. Then pour the vegetable stock and simmer for a while.
• Season with salt and serve.

More Soup recipes,
Vegetable soup
Manchow soup
Tomato soup
Sweet corn soup
Chicken soup

How to Make Clear Soup (Stepwise Photos)

Prepare Veggie Stock

You can use any amount of vegetables to make this clear soup but a well balanced quantities will yield you a delicious soup. Avoid using too much of cabbage in this as it will leave an off flavor to the soup.

1. Add 1 large yellow cubed onion. Avoid using red onions as the flavor will be different.

2. Add 1 cup celery stalks.

3. Add 10 French beans and 2 medium sized carrots.

4. Next add half medium cabbage and 1 to 2 celery stalks with leaves or coriander leaves.

5. Pour water just enough to cover the veggies. I used 2.5 cups water.

6. Cover and simmer until the veggies turn soft.

7. The veggies must turn mushy and flavorless.

8. Strain them to a large bowl

9. If you don’t intend to eat the veggies then mash them well. I get about half a cup of stock from this.

10. This was the veggie stock I got.

Make Clear Soup

11. Add 1 tbsp oil and saute 1 teaspoon each of chopped ginger & garlic for a minute. If you prefer to make it without oil then just skip the oil. Pour the stock, ginger & garlic and the veggies. Simmer until they are slightly tender.

12. Then add mushrooms and saute well until a nice aroma comes out. You can also skip mushrooms here and just add some carrots, beans, sweet corn and peas.

13. Pour the veggie stock.

14. Simmer and boil until the mushrooms are done to your liking. Then add the spring onion greens. Add some salt if you prefer. Some restaurants serve it with soya sauce.

Serve clear soup hot with some fried noodles or fried rice. You can also simply add some boiled noodles to the soup and have.

Pro Tips

• You can skip using oil in the recipe. Add garlic, ginger and mushrooms to the soup after straining and boil until the mushrooms are done.
• I discard the strained veggies as they become tasteless. However you can also season and eat them on the side as they are fiber rich.
• Use the organic veggies to make the clear soup and not the vegetable stock as the veggies are discarded. I always prefer to use the organic vegetables at the final step. This time I had only organic mushrooms so I sauteed and left them in the soup.
• You can replace mushrooms with mixed veggies.

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