Aulacese (Vietnamese) Sour Soup, Vegan Ham & White Eggplant

Today, we joyfully present Supreme Master Ching Hai’s “Aulacese (Vietnamese) Sour Soup, Vegan Ham & White Eggplant.” “OK, we’re going to cook some sour soup, Aulacese (Vietnamese) style. Sometimes, I put three, four kinds of herbs together in one soup. The more herbs, it tastes better. So we’ll put coriander in, and the special Rice paddy herb，together and soak it in saltwater for disinfecting it, washing all the impurity, and then you cook it. We also need two lemons and soya sprouts and lady’s fingers (okra). Optional, hot chili. And hard tofu and tomatoes, whatever size. This is a ready-made vegan ham. You cut it into slices, however many slices you like. Then you just warm it up, either microwave or steam it to warm it up. That’s it! Then, later you put some lemon and soy sauce on it. The water’s already boiled. All you do is just put all the ingredients in it, in whatever order you like. You put the tofu first, maybe. However much you like, there’s no rule. The lady’s fingers, tofu, and then we put one or two tablespoons, it depends, of vegetable broth powder, just for the good taste. And you put like half a teacup of apple juice, either freshly made or from the box. It’s fine. For a deeper taste, you can put like one teaspoon of sugar into it. Although it’s a sour soup, it’s just for a deeper taste. Sugar should be used as a condiment, not to eat too much, except in cakes now and again. This is mostly home cooking, real Aulacese (Vietnamese) cooking! Real home cooking because you don’t often have it in the restaurant. This is a white eggplant. You can buy them in a supermarket or Chinese store, oriental store. It tastes very delicious. We eat it with soya paste. That’s a kind of thick soya sauce. That’s all!”