Tomato Egg Drop Soup

Whenever we visit restaurants, soups are ordered for 3 of my daughters. Well if you all are wondering who the third one is apart from my twin girls, it’s my MIL. She would sip the soup and each time ask me like a kid ‘Seemu, can’t you prepare this at home?’ Nowadays we have a wide array of ready-made packets available but I refrain from buying them at the thought of MSG being used in them. Although they taste absolutely delicious, I’ve never fed those soups to my kids. I made this Tomato Egg Drop Soup from Sanjeev Kapoor’s book and it turned out quite well. Children would certainly like it as its is not spicy and also gets made in a jiffy. Most inredients are readily available in an Indian kitchen. Here goes the recipe:

Ingredients
Tomatoes - 4 medium sized, chopped
Eggs - 2, lightly whisked
Oil - 2 tbsps
Ginger - 1", chopped, optional (I used ginger paste)
Garlic cloves - 2-3, chopped
Onion - 1/2 medium, chopped
Tomato sauce - 4 tbsps
Vegetable stock - 4 cups
Salt to taste
Sugar - 1 tsp
MSG / Ajinomoto - 1/4 tsp (optional)
White pepper powder - 1/2 tsp
Cornflour - 2 tbsp
White vinegar - 2 tbsp
Coriander leaves - 1 tbsp, chopped

Method
1. Heat oil in a pan, add ginger and garlic and stir-fry for one minute. Add onion and continue to stir-fry for one minute more.
2. Add tomatoes and tomato sauce and cook on high heat for two or three minutes. Stir in three and a half cups of vegetable stock and bring to a boil. Add salt to taste, sugar, MSG and white pepper powder.
3. Mix cornflour and remaining vegetable stock. Add to the pan and cook for one minute, or until the soup thickens, stirring continuously.
4. Stir in the vinegar. Pour the whisked egg in a steady steam into the hot soup stirring gently to form egg threads. The egg will coagulate and float to the top.
5. Serve hot, garnished with coriander leaves.