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If you ever visit a Hong Kong style western café, you will know once you are seated, the waiter or waitress will serve you with a hot cup of their daily special soup. This is a common practice in most Hong Kong style cafés, in fact Hong Kong people like to drink their soup before the meal. So don’t be surprise. The two popular soups that are usually serving are either the cream of corn (something like Campbell soup) or Luo Song Tong (羅宋湯) / Russian Borscht Soup, this is what I like the most.

I love the taste of Luo Song Tong (羅宋湯) , it is a hearty tomato based vegetable soup that is is quite similar to our ABC Soup actually (in Patrick’s previous post). The main difference is the Luo Song Tong is much more intense in flavor as the soup base is cooked with beef bones or beef stew with lots of tomatoes and all kind of vegetables such as carrot, onion, potato and celery. I always want to try to make this at home. So this has been a good timing since I removed my wisdom tooth and I couldn’t eat too much of solid food, I’ve made a pot of yummy Luo Song Tong for my weeknight dinners with some greens.

Despite my love to Luo Song Tong, I actually just found the soup has been modified from the Russian Borscht soup, a hearty beetroot vegetable soup originated from Ukraine or Eastern Russia. I always couldn’t figure out why it is called “Luo Song” Soup, it is actually a translation of pronunciation for the word Russia. Please excuse my unknown. Enjoy a hearty meal.

Ingredients:

1 lb beef stews or beef bones for soup
5 tomatoes (cut into cubes)
3 carrots (cut into cubes)
3 talks celery (cut into cubes)
1 red onion (cut into cubes)
1/4 cabbage (optional)
4 garlic (crushed)
10-15 peppercorns (crushed)
1 bay leave
1 6 oz can tomato puree ( you can make your own tomato puree from scratch)
1/2 cup of beef stock
1 1/2 all purpose flour (dissolve in water)
2 tbsp ketchup (for flavor enhancement-optional)
Salt &  black pepper to taste

Serve size:  4-6 people

Cooking method:

1. Blanch beef stews or beef bones in boiling hot water, drain and rinse slightly with running cold tap water.
2. Add the beef stew or beef bones into a pot of boiling water, add the beef stock, bay leave, crushed peppercorns, garlic and half of the chopped onions into the pot. Cook for 90 minutes until the meat is tender.
3. Rinse and cut up all vegetable ingredients into cubes or bite sizes.
4. Heat some oil in a pan over medium heat, stir fry the onions until translucent. Add some tomatoes and stir fry for a while till tender. (This is to make the tomatoes more thicker and cook quicker, you can skip this step.)
5. Toss all the cut vegetables into the pot, bring to boil and turn to low simmer for 45 minutes until the vegetables become tender. Stir occasionally to prevent sticking to the bottom.
6. Add the tomato purees and flour water into the pot to increase its thickness. Bring to boil, turn to low and simmer for another 15 minutes, stir occasionally.
7. Tip, add in 1 to 2 tbsp ketchup for flavor enhancement and sweetness.
8. Season with salt and black pepper to taste. Garnish with parsley or cilantro. Serve hot.