Delicious and comforting tofu tomato noodle soup inspired by my childhood favourite dish!

Bowl of tofu and tomato noodle soup with thin Chinese noodles and chopped green onion. There is a pair of red wooden chopsticks and a white stripped napkin under the bowl. — Tofu and Tomato Noodle soup with chopped green onions

As I mentioned at the start of this blog, this dish is inspired by my favourite childhood comfort food: Tomato and egg noodle soup. After going vegan, my mother and I veganized this recipe by simply replacing the egg with tofu. The deliciousness and comfort of the dish remained and we would often add other vegetables to the dish to shake things up! in this recipe, we are making the OG version with diced tomatoes and diced medium-firm tofu.

7 easy steps to making this noodle soup:

Fry the medium firm tofu in a pot.
Add the tomato and a pinch of salt and simmer
Pour in the water (for the soup) and bring to a boil
Add noodles of your choice and flavours
Serve with green onion and your favourite hot sauce (I love Siracha or Lao Gan Ma)

Bowl of tofu and tomato noodle soup with siracha, thin Chinese noodles and chopped green onion. There is a pair of red wooden chopsticks and a white stripped napkin under the bowl. — Served with Siracha Hot Sauce

Ingredients:

Why do we add salt at the start of the recipe?

In this dish we want to bring out the juice and the flavour of the tomato. By adding a pinch of salt when simmering the tomato with the tofu, it helps the tomato juice come out and enhance the flavour of the soup. After adding the soy sauce and the other flavouring, if you still feel that the soup is not salty enough, you can go ahead and add more salt.

How does sesame oil contribute to the dish?

First of all, what is sesame oil? It’s pretty self explanatory but sesame oil is made by toasting sesame seeds and extracting the oil, which contains a nutty taste. You can add it to any dish to enhance the flavour, and that’s exactly why we add sesame oil to this dish! Just the slightest amount can change the feel of the dish.

Significance of soy sauce and black vinegar

Soy sauce and black vinegar are two of the most commonly used liquid flavours in Chinese cooking. Most people are familiar with soy sauce, but not everyone has tried black vinegar. Essentially, black vinegar is made of white rice and is similar to balsamic vinegar because of the similar making process. Not only does the soy sauce add saltiness to the dish, it also brings its own unique flavour that simply adding salt could not achieve. The black vinegar is sour, so it can balance out the saltiness of the soy sauce.

Choice of Chinese noodle

What differentiates Chinese noodles from Italian pasta is that noodles are made with common wheat whilst pasta is made with durum semolina, which is much more coarse. For this recipe you can use dry or fresh noodles and whatever size you like. I prefer thicker noodles over the thin ones, but whichever type of noodle you choose, make sure to follow its cooking instructions.

Tofu and Tomato

Lastly, we have the star of the dish: medium firm tofu and Roma tomato! Nothing much to say except that the reason why we chose medium firm tofu is because firm tofu is too harsh for this comforting noodle soup and soft tofu breaks apart too easily. You can use any tomato but Roma is my go-to because it’s easier to cut and handle.

I’m going to stop babbling and let you make this recipe. If you have any questions comments or concerns, feel free to comment down below or send me a DM on Instagram (@foodbylingling). If you make this recipe, give it a rating out of 5 stars and comment what you liked or didn’t like!