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Ho Chi Minh's silken tofu and ginger broth

A light, plant-based bowl for a quiet appetite

Easy10 min hands-on · 20 min totalServes 1
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A bowl of rice noodles and silken tofu in a clear ginger-infused broth.

Doubles in a larger pan, using a whole block of tofu rather than half.

Silken tofu holds together only barely, which makes it exactly right for a night when chewing feels like an effort. Ginger does the flavouring here, sliced and simmered in the stock until the whole pan smells warm and a little sharp, then strained out completely before anything else goes in, since a spice like this is meant to season the broth and disappear rather than sit in the bowl. Rice noodles cooked properly soft take on the same broth, and the tofu goes in barely stirred, so the cubes stay whole rather than breaking into curds. A dash of soy sauce is the only seasoning it needs. The whole thing is vegan by nature rather than by substitution, and the only washing-up at the end of it is a pan and a sieve.

Tags Vegetarian · Dairy-free option · Quick

From the chronicle · London, 1913

A bowl of clear broth with soft rice noodles and cubes of silken tofu on a scrubbed table in a hotel kitchen below stairs, London, 1913.

At a long lunch in 1964, at the far end of a longer table, a Vietnamese delegate told me the old man himself had told him this, and he told it the way you repeat a thing you have been asked to repeat. In 1913 the President had been a kitchen hand at the Carlton Hotel in London, under Escoffier, scraping plates and scouring the copper at an age when most men have not yet decided what they are for. He ate at midnight like everyone else below stairs, and a stomach that is fed once a day, late, on the ends of other people's dinners, stops wanting anything solid. What he wanted was this. Tofu from a shop in Limehouse, a broth with ginger simmered in it and then strained out entirely, so the heat was in the liquid and nothing was left to bite on, rice noodles cooked past soft in the same pan, and the tofu slid in at the end and never stirred, because stirred it turns to curds. The delegate said Escoffier never knew. I think he would have approved of the straining, if nothing else.

The people, places and dates are real. The meal and the conversation are not. Read more about the chronicle.

Ingredients

Contains: Gluten, Soya, Celery

  • 400 mlvegetable stock, home-made and strained, or a good stock cube
  • 4 slicefresh ginger, sliced, to infuse and remove
  • 70 grice noodles, dried
  • 150 gsilken tofu, cut into cubes
  • 1½ tbspsoy sauce

Method

  1. Put the stock and ginger slices in a small pan and bring to a gentle simmer. Let it infuse for 5 minutes, then pour it through a fine sieve into a clean pan, so every piece of ginger is left behind.

  2. Bring the strained broth back to a simmer, add the rice noodles and cook for 4 to 5 minutes, or as the packet says, until they are fully soft with no bite left.

  3. Add the tofu cubes to the pan, sliding them in gently rather than stirring, and warm through for a minute without breaking them up.

  4. Stir in the soy sauce, taste, and pour into a deep, warm bowl.

Watch-points

  • Slice the ginger, simmer it in the stock to infuse, then strain it out and lift out every piece before the noodles go in. None should remain in the bowl.
  • Use a stock that is clear and strained, home-made or a good cube.
  • Silken tofu is delicate. Cut it in cubes and slide it into the hot broth rather than stirring hard, so it stays whole.

Some hospitals allow a little ground ginger as a spice; the leaflet this book follows does not. Leave it out if you have been told to.

Make it more nourishing

  • Use 200 g of silken tofu instead of 150 g. More protein, no extra step.
  • Stir a tablespoon of vegetable oil through the broth before it goes into the bowl. It adds about 120 kcal and gives the surface a little shine.
  • Blend 100 g of the tofu with a ladleful of the hot broth and stir it back in. The broth turns opaque and creamy and carries more protein in the same amount of liquid.

Swaps

Instead of silken tofu, use firm tofu, cut small and simmered a minute longer
holds together better if silken tofu feels too delicate to manage
Instead of rice noodles, use fine egg noodles cooked soft
not plant-based any more, but a good stand-in if that is what is in the cupboard

The foods in this recipe

Each of these has a page of its own, with how to prepare it and where hospitals differ.

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