Steps
1. Put all ingredients into a pot (except tomatoes) and bring to boil.
2. Boil for 5 minutes then add in tomatoes.
3. Bring the soup to simmer under slow fire for 10 minutes.
4. Serve hot with rice.
Soup can be very easy to cook and especially suitable for those who are new to cooking. All that is required is preparation of soup ingredients. ABC soup is one of the simplest ever. Heard of “as easy as ABC”? I believe that’s how this soup got its name! No seasoning is required therefore one can hardly fail producing this soup. It is a healthy and easy soup to cook. It can also become low fat soup (remove the skin of chicken used for the soup. Otherwise, use lean pork or beef.Sze Chuan preserved vegetable used in ABC soup is also known as Sze Chuan Zhar Choy. Due to it being preserved, it needs to be blanched with hot water to remove the preservatives then thinly sliced before adding into the pot. While every ingredients used in this ABC soup recipe are important, I find two main ingredients affect the flavour of the soup most – Sze Chuan preserved vegetable and tomatoes. Some ABC soup recipes do not include Sze Chuan preserved vegetable but I find it tastier with this ingredient. It contributes to the saltiness of the soup while tomatoes contribute to the fresh sour taste. The sweetness of the soup is contributed by all other ingredients in the soup especially onions.Tomatoes are added last because it tends to turn too tender (if not already is) if added too early. It cooks faster than the rest of the ingredients. A simple mistake often made by amateur cook is boil water first, then only add in ingredients. It is suggested that water should be brought to boil TOGETHER with all ingredients so the flavour from each ingredient can be slowly “released” during process of boiling.When done, serve the soup hot with rice.