Friday Night Chinese

It's Friday and for most of my life Friday has, more often than not, meant Chinese food for dinner.  And does this girl love her some chinese.  Egg rolls, crab rangoon, fried rice, beef and broccoli, chicken and shrimp hunan style, I like it all.  But my all time favorite, always have to have it, is hot and sour soup.  Boy do I love me some hot and sour soup.

One time, my friend Paul, in describing his love for Chipotle, told me that he wished he could make a burrito big enough to swim in.  This is how I feel about hot and sour soup. 

But of course, this new Paleo lifestyle that I've embarked on frowns on things like gluten, too much salt, soy and the ol Chinese stand-by, msg.  Everything I've read talks about an 80/20 balance and the necessity of deviating from Paleo sometimes to keep it up.  But today is day 12 and I'm not ready to cheat yet.  When I started this, I told myself I'd go a solid 30 days of Paleo before I'd cheat. 

So what to do on a Friday when take out is pretty much out of question?

I found a Paleo hot and sour soup recipe so I decided despite it being more than 90 degrees outside, tonight is as good a time as ever to try out some soup.  Here is the recipe I used:  Yum Yum Hot and Sour Soup

Right off the bat, I changed up some things:
-  I used chicken instead of pork.  Nothing against pork, I just had some chicken in the fridge that needed to be used.
-  I didn't marinate the chicken.  I was hungry and soup takes a little while anyway to let flavors develop so I didn't want to waste anymore time.
-  I used a ginger paste instead of fresh ginger root.  First of all, ginger root is expensive.  Second, I don't really have any idea what to do with ginger root.  But the ginger paste I used was paleo friendly so fair cheat.
-  I added some celery and onion to the soup.  The onion for flavor, the celery for a crunch element.  Texture is important.
-  I added about an extra tbsp of aminos and added red pepper for a little heat

Other than those things, I followed the recipe pretty closely.  And it was awesome!!  It had the right amount of tart, just a hint of sweet, and plenty of spice.  I thought about nixing the tapioca flour paste but I'm glad I didn't.  It gave the soup a perfect thickness for hot and sour soup. 

This is a great recipe and I recommend it for Paleo and non-Paleo alike.  And now I know I can survive this crazy diet without giving up at least one of my favorites!