My family and I hosted a hot pot night for our friends during Lunar New Year in February. Since there was going to an eclectic bunch of us, we came up with a few soup bases. One of which was a vegetarian broth. My sister and I came up with this one, and it turned out really well.
We used a variety of vegetables to really make a flavorful soup base. We then added in mushroom seasoning to give it that boost of flavor.
Vegetarian Broth Recipe
1 Whole Daikon
1/2 Cabbage
3 Carrots
1 Whole Onion
1/2 Tbsp Salt
1/2 Tbsp Whole Black Peppercorns
1/2 Gallon Water
2 Salted/Sweet Radish (Optional)
1/2 Tbsp Mushroom Seasoning (Optional)
Cut the vegetables into halves or quarters. The reason we’re not cutting it smaller is because you’re going to strain the broth afterwards. Put on High heat until boiling, then lower to Medium to Medium Low heat for 1 to 1 1/2 hour. Taste the broth to see if you need to add more salt or mushroom seasoning. Sweet radish is a preserved vegetable and also available in a salted version. If you’re unable to locate this, it can be omitted.
You can add more or less of everything depending on the amount of broth you make. You can also store or freeze the excess broth to use at a later time.
For a vegetarian hot pot night, here are some things you can buy.
Napa cabbage
Bean thread noodles
Tofu (Fried and Soft)
Udon noodles
Mushrooms (Enoki, Shiitake, King Oyster Mushroom)
Chrysanthemum leaves (AKA: Shungiku, Tongho/Tonghao, or Tan O)
Any Vegetarian meat
Any Asian-style Vegetarian dumplings or seafood/meat balls
For a dipping sauce, soy sauce is good. There’s also 2 delicious Japanese sauces to try, Ponzu & Sesame. Want to be adventurous? Try Sate or Satay Chili Sauce. We like to add diced green onion and diced onions for extra flavor.
We were introduced to using sate sauce at a hot pot restaurant. One of the best discoveries ever! The taste is amazing and spicy enough to wake up your taste buds.
You can add anything else you like to make it a Hot Pot style meal. If you like to eat spicy, add a little chili oil to the broth.
Many of the foreign items can be bought at any Asian supermarket. If an Asian supermarket is unavailable in your area, I found a lot of these items on Amazon for online purchasing.
Enjoy!