Paleo Egg Drop Soup is a hearty soup that is quick and easy to make. It is budget-friendly and packed with protein and flavor. Enjoy your favorite takeout at home!
I am a self-proclaimed soup-a-holic. I could probably eat soup for every meal - even in the summer.
Why Make Egg Drop Soup at Home?
At Chinese restaurants, I always order egg drop soup but it always makes me feel kind of crummy. I love that egg drop soup is light but also filling - at a restaurant, it is also, unfortunately, really greasy and loaded with MSG. I love being able to make it at home to avoid unnecessary additives and also add some vegetables.
🥘 Ingredient Notes
• eggs
• diced onion
• diced celery
• chicken stock or bone broth
• fresh ginger
• green onions
• sesame oil
• white pepper
• black pepper
• Umami powder - I buy my Umami Powder from Trader Joe's, but you can also make your own.
🥣 How to Make It
To make your soup, begin by dicing your onions and celery. (Pictures 1 - 2)
Next, saute your vegetables in 1 tablespoon of sesame oil. (Pictures 3 - 4)
Once the onions are translucent, add one and a half quarts of chicken stock.* (I make my own bone broth and pressure can it in quart size mason jars. I use one and a half jars for this recipe.)
*1 quart is equal to 4 cups, so this would be 6 cups if you are measuring from a larger container.
Next, bring this all to a boil and add most of your scallions and a few chunks of ginger. Let the broth simmer for 10 - 15 minutes so the ginger can infuse the broth. The longer it simmers, the stronger the ginger flavor will be. (Picture 5)
While your broth Simmers, whisk five eggs together in a small bowl and prepare your arrowroot slurry.
How Do You Thicken Your Soup?
Your next step is thickening your broth and removing the ginger chunks. You can remove the ginger pretty easily by running a slotted spoon around the pot.
To make your slurry, mix together 1 tablespoon of arrowroot powder and one tablespoon of water. I absolutely recommend doing it this way - if you just dump arrowroot into your soup, you will end up with some gross, slimy chunks. (I learned this lesson the hard way - no one wants slime boogers in their food 😉 ) If you don't have arrowroot powder, you can use tapioca starch. If you are not Paleo, you can also use corn starch. (Picture 6)
Next, add your white pepper, Umami powder (not necessary, but adds a yummy flavor), salt, and black pepper. (Picture 7) Cook this for 5 more minutes, then turn your heat up to medium-high so you have a bit of a rolling boil.
Next, slowly pour your eggs into your boiling broth while stirring the broth in circles. (Gross comparison, but you want it to be swirling around like a toilet flushing while you pour in the eggs. This will help to keep you from getting huge egg blobs and will leave you with nice egg whisps. You can also pour your eggs through a fork or through chopsticks, but I didn't notice enough of a difference for that to be worth the effort.)
Give the soup one more good stir and cook for another 2 - 3 minutes, just to be sure the eggs are cooked through. (Picture 8)
Remove from heat and spoon into bowls. (Picture 9)
🍳 Serving Suggestions & Uses
To serve, spoon your soup into a bowl and garnish with freshly sliced green onion. You can also add some diced or shredded chicken, homemade wontons, or sliced pork.
What Makes this Egg Drop Soup Paleo?
Traditional egg drop soup is thickened with corn starch. This soup is thickened with arrowroot instead!
Have You Tried This Recipe?
Please rate it and leave a comment below. I would love to hear what you think!
Paleo Egg Drop Soup
Equipment
- a medium pot
Ingredients
- 2 stalks celery, diced
- 1 small onion, diced
- 1.5 quarts chicken stock or bone broth This is equal to 6 cups
- 2 chunks ground ginger ½ - 1 inch chunks
- 1 tbsp sesame oil
- 2-3 green onions, chopped
- ¼ tsp Umami powder optional
- 1 tsp kosher salt More to taste when serving.
- ½ tsp pepper More to taste when serving.
- ¼ tsp white pepper optional but adds some bite
- 5 eggs Whisked together.
Thickening Slurry
- 1 tbsp water
- 1 tbsp arrowroot powder Cornstarch works as well but is not Paleo.
Garnish
- 1 green onion, chopped thinly
- kosher salt to taste
- pepper to taste
Instructions
- Heat 1 tbsp sesame oil in a small or medium-sized pot.
- While the oil is heating, dice your celery and onions.
- Once the oil is hot, add your celery and onions to the pot. Cook until onions are translucent, stirring as needed. (Onions will be soft and no longer white - you should be able to almost see through them.)
- Once your onions are cooked, add your stock, ginger chunks, and most of your green onions, saving some for garnish.
- Simmer this for about 15 minutes. The longer you simmer, the stronger your ginger flavor will be.
- While your broth is simmering, create your arrowroot slurry by mixing your water and arrowroot in a small bowl. (Do not add dry arrowroot to your soup - it will clump up and look like snot chunks.)
- While your broth is simmering, also whisk together 5 - 6 large eggs, using 6 if the eggs are on the smaller side.
- Next, fish out your ginger chunks with a slotted spoon.
- Mix in your slurry and bring the broth back to a rolling boil. At this point you will add your black pepper, white pepper, Umami powder, and salt.
- Cook for about 5 more minutes and then give the pot a stir so that the broth is spinning (like toilet water 😉 and slowly pour in your eggs. Continue stirring as you pour in your eggs to prevent big egg chunks from forming.
- Cook for another 2 - 3 minutes to fully cook the egg and then spoon into bowls.
- Garnish with thinly sliced green onions and salt and pepper to taste. I beg of you, LET THE SOUP COOL BEFORE EATING. Seriously. It looks and smells amazing, but it will be SO HOT.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is approximate and is automatically calculated, so should only be used as a guide.
Ben Myhre
We made this last night and it was dang good. Tasted much like I would get at a Chinese restaurant. As we have a vegetarian in the family, I did use veggie broth instead of chicken or bone.
We also added in some homemade vegan wontons to the mix.
Debbie
We are trying to eat clean at our house and this soup sounds so good. I love all of your step by step photos..we will be trying this soon..I think I have everything on hand except Umami powder.
Kari
The Umami adds a little something extra, but it is really good without it as well! I hope you enjoy it!