Broke-Ass Recipes: Egg Drop Soup

By James Conrad.

Egg drop soup is commonly associated with Chinese culture and may have been known to the ancients. According to archaeological evidence, keeping fowl for eggs has been documented in China as early as 1400 B.C.E.

It is also a quick and easy dish to make, and a deceptively filling comfort food.

First, scramble six eggs in an appropriately-sized bowl, and set that aside. Next, heat 32 ounces of beef, chicken or vegetable broth in a saucepan. While the broth simmers, chop up enough scallions to make one and a half to two handfuls. The scallions can be used as an aesthetic garnish atop the finished product, but I prefer to add the scallions to the simmering broth, as it gives the soup a little extra flavor.

When the broth has come to a rolling boil, take a teaspoon and slowly add the scrambled eggs from the bowl to the broth, spoonful by spoonful until the bowl is empty. The egg matter will flash cook on impact, it’s pretty satisfying to watch the flowery globs form, and by the time the bowl is empty, the soup will technically be ready.

But why stop there?

For example, if I were using chicken broth, I would marinade a pound of diced pre-cooked chicken in soy sauce and add that to the mix, along with some roasted seaweed and canned whole-kernel corn, and season to taste with some black pepper, onion powder and garlic powder. Also, when adding the corn, just toss the whole can in, water and all. You’ll notice that the trace amounts of cornstarch will give a little thickness to the broth, especially after the soup has been let to sit in the refrigerator.

If you are using beef broth, after you have added all the egg, you could throw in a pound of crumbled extra lean ground beef, also marinaded in soy sauce. In this case, I recommend the 96/4 ratio, for the obvious reason that you probably don’t want an excess of greasy fat in your soup.

However, if one prefers to avoid meat as much as possible, diced tofu pairs well with a vegetable broth and as an added bonus, proves to be appreciably less expensive than either chicken or beef.

On that note, let’s tally the cost. Regardless of whether you use a chicken, beef or vegetable broth, Target offers a decent own-brand example of each for about two dollars across the board, and for those mindful of heart and circulatory health, there is a low-sodium option. At Trader Joe’s, three bucks can get you six eggs. Just about anywhere, one bunch of scallions can be gotten for about two bucks. For a packet of roasted seaweed, that’s another two bucks. For a can of whole-kernel corn, that’s a buck.

Now for the seasonings (please season your egg drop soup).

Soy sauce costs about four bucks at Trader Joe’s or about two bucks at Target. You can also get ground black pepper there for about four bucks per three ounces. Though, if you want to give your egg drop soup a little zest, you can drop a couple bucks more for a six-ounce jar of Old Bay Seasoning, which usually costs about a dollar per ounce. The paprika in Old Bay might also give the soup an alluring orange tinge, depending on how much you use. Minced garlic and onion cost a buck fifty each, so that’s three for the pair. If you wanted to add a couple teaspoons of miso paste or use that to make a straight miso broth, you can get 13.2 ounces of the stuff at Safeway for just under six bucks.

So, without yet even taking into account adding the meat or tofu, we are in the ballpark of $20 to $25. If you were to use one 10-ounce can and one five-ounce can of Target’s own-brand canned chicken, you’d spend about five bucks. If you wanted to opt for extra-lean ground beef, that’s $7.50 per pound. Again, I recommend the 96/4 ratio for most soups and casseroles (trust me, your taste buds and circulatory system will each thank me later). 

If you wanted to explore the ovo-lacto vegetarian option, Trader Joe’s sells firm tofu at about a buck fifty for fourteen ounces. If you were to eat half a coffee mug’s worth of egg drop soup, you’d be plenty satisfied for at least a good couple hours, I’m sure. I once cooked this up at a fairly large potluck house party and it went pretty far. Indeed, a lot of the guests gave it rave reviews. So, estimating eight portions per pot and taking into account whether meat, miso or tofu is or isn’t added, the estimated cost per portion can range from about two fifty to about five fifty.