Soup for Breakfast

Shambhavi's rice porridge recipe plus a love letter to soup for breakfast from around the world

Photo credit: Shambhavi Sarasvati, kindred108

The Story

From the blueberry soup of Sweden, to rice porridge in India and China, to Turkish red lentil soup, to miso in Japan, menudo in Mexico, changua in Columbia, and pho in Vietnam, soup is breakfast for many of Earth’s cultures and countries.

Soup for breakfast has many health benefits. It wakes up your senses, hydrates your tissues, and gets your digestive system moving. It is deeply nourishing, especially if it contains all or most of the six tastes: sweet, salty, bitter, pungent, sour, and astringent. Soup soothes the nervous system and helps you to feel more heart-centered and connected to others and your world.

I didn’t learn to make a breakfast of Chinese rice porridge with vegetables, egg, and/or meat until I was in my early 40s. Well, better late than never. I was thrilled to find the Indian version, called “congee,” in Bangali Tola, an old neighborhood in Varanasi.

The restaurant made every congee order from scratch in the Bengali style with both rice and red lentils. You had to wait 45 minutes to be served, but even early in the morning, the place was jammed with students from Korea, China, and Japan looking to get their breakfast soup “fix.”

I’ve most often stayed in or near Bangali Tola when visiting Varanasi. Do go during the day unless you are very familiar with the winding, narrow lanes of this section of the city. There are no cars or rickshaws or streetlights, and it’s easy to get lost in the dark.

Jouk or congee is a savory rice porridge that is enjoyed all over Southeast and East Asia and in Asian communities and restaurants around the world. The earliest known reference to the soup is from 1000 BCE in China. 

Shambhavi’s Congee

Congee is one of those foods that is infinitely variable. Feel free to change it up. There is no one right way! Totally vegan or vegetarian works beautifully, too.

Ingredients

• 1 lb bone-in chicken without skin or 1/2 lb ground pork (optional)

• 1 cup short-grain white rice, not washed

• 4 cups chicken broth or chicken bone broth (can substitute vegetable broth)

• 2 - 3 cups water depending on how thick you like your congee

• 1 large slice ginger

• 1.5 tablespoons goji berries (optional)

• 1/4 cup lotus seeds soaked overnight (optional)

• Vegetables of your choosing. I like to add green beans, cut into thirds, sliced daikon, and some kind of bitter greens.

• 2 scallions, sliced including the green

• Handful of chopped cilantro

• Furikake garnish (optional)

• Salt and pepper to taste

• Ghee or toasted sesame oil

Instructions

1. Put the meat, unwashed rice, broth, water, ginger, optional items, and the white part of the sliced scallions into a rice cooker, instant pot, or stovetop pot.

2. Set rice cooker to "porridge." Set instant pot to "porridge" and 30 minutes cooking time. Stovetop cooking will take about 45 minutes and requires frequent stirring.

3. When congee is done, remove the chicken. Debone and pull the meat apart into strands or chop roughly. Put the chicken back into the pot.

4. Add salt and pepper to taste and ladle into bowls.

5. Top with green part of sliced scallions, chopped cilantro, and optional items. Drizzle with ghee or toasted sesame oil.

6. Serve and enjoy!

Innovations

Top with:

• sliced, sauteed shitake mushrooms

• a drizzle of balsamic vinegar

• a hard boiled egg, cut in half

Add:

• a bit of millet to the rice before cooking

• a bit of minced, sautéed garlic

• sliced shitake mushrooms to the soup while cooking

• a tablespoon or more of tahini whisked into the hot broth