This popular restaurant soup is way easier to make at home than you think. Using simple ingredients, this savoury beef soup will be ready in about ten minutes.

West Lake soup was named after the lake in China because the colours in the soup were reflective of the scenery.

This recipe is very flexible. You can substitute the beef for pork, chicken or fish. You can also add tofu as another protein or texture. If you don’t like cilantro, you can try spinach, watercress, garlic chives or green onion. Use what you like and there’s so much goodness because you know exactly what’s going in.

Makes 4-6 servings

Ingredients

½ pound ground beef
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon ShaoHsing wine
6 cups chicken broth
4 tablespoons cornstarch
¼ cup cool water
2 eggs, lightly beaten
½ teaspoon Kosher salt
¼ teaspoon ground white pepper
½ bunch cilantro, roughly chopped

Instructions

In a medium mixing bowl, combine beef, soy sauce and ShaoHsing wine. Let marinate while you prepare the remaining ingredients.
In a large dutch oven on medium high heat, add the chicken stock and bring to a boil.
Drop meat in and break up quickly.
In a small bowl, dissolve cornstarch in cold water to make a slurry. Stir the slurry into the soup. Add more slurry if a thicker soup is desired.
While gently stirring the soup, slowly drizzle in the eggs to create the egg ribbons.
Stir in cilantro. Season with salt, ground white pepper, and sesame oil.

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5 from 1 vote