The West Lake Beef Soup recipe from our first cookbook, Nom Nom Paleo: Food For Humans, is a simple and delicious Whole30-friendly soup that’ll fill you up on any weeknight!
I’m sharing this classic Chinese soup recipe because it’s one of my childhood favorites. With bright green flecks of cilantro and cloudlike wisps of egg, this soup is both gorgeous and satisfying.
But don’t just take my word for it—Mindy Kaling, one of the coolest and funniest people on TV and the big screen, recently showed folks how to make my West Lake Beef Soup on her Instagram Stories and she told everyone how she loved both of my cookbooks. Is this real life? (You can check out her post here.)
Mindy did have a few questions about my recipe in her IG Stories, so I’ve answered them and a few others below:
COOKING TIPS, SUBSTITUTIONS, AND SUGGESTIONS
The recipe calls for minced flank steak. What is that? Can I use ground beef instead?
Traditionally, this recipe is made with flank steak that is hand-chopped with a giant Chinese cleaver until it’s finely cut up. To make it easier to chop, I normally freeze the steak for about 30 minutes and then hack it up with my chef’s knife. If you don’t want to chop it by hand, you can use a food processor or buy lean ground beef.
Can I use another ground meat in place of beef?
Yes, you can substitute minced chicken thighs, pork, or dark meat turkey in place of the beef. It won’t taste the same, but the soup will still be delicious.
What do I do with the leftover egg yolks?
West Lake Beef Soup is a fancier version of Simple Egg Drop Soup, but it’s made with only whisked egg whites. I often use the leftover yolks to make one of my favorite desserts, Mexican Chocolate Pots de Creme. If you’d rather use the yolks, too, no problem: just add whisked whole eggs to the soup.
I hate cilantro! Can I leave it out?
West Lake Beef Soup is a cilantro-forward soup, but you can definitely leave it out if you are genetically predisposed to hate cilantro!
How do I store leftovers?
Leftover soup can be kept in a sealed container in the fridge for up to 4 days, but it does taste best when it’s freshly made. Sometimes, the soup thins out upon reheating, but it doesn’t bother me. If you want to re-thicken the soup, you can add more arrowroot slurry when you heat it up.
Now let’s cook up a pot of West Lake Beef Soup!
Serves 4
Ingredients:
- ½ pound flank steak, finely minced
- 1 teaspoon Diamond Crystal brand kosher salt
- 2 teaspoons rice vinegar
- 1 teaspoon Red Boat fish sauce
- 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
- ¼ teaspoon ground white pepper
- 6 cups Instant Pot bone broth or chicken stock
- ¼ pound fresh shiitake mushrooms, stemmed and thinly sliced
- ¼ cup arrowroot powder
- 3 large egg whites, lightly beaten
- 1 cup packed fresh cilantro, finely minced
- 3 scallions, thinly sliced
Equipment:
- Chef’s knife
- Cutting board
- Large saucepan
- Small bowls
- Measuring spoons
- Measuring cups
- Silicone spatula
- Ladle
Method:
Combine the beef, salt, vinegar, fish sauce, sesame oil, and ¼ teaspoon ground white pepper in a bowl. Mix well.
Bring the broth and mushrooms to a boil over high heat in a large saucepan. Lower the heat to maintain a simmer.
In a small bowl, whisk ¼ cup arrowroot powder with ¼ cup water to make a slurry.
Stir the arrowroot slurry into the simmering broth to thicken it.
Once the soup thickens, add the marinated meat and stir well. As soon as the meat is cooked through, turn off the heat. Taste the soup and season with salt and white pepper if needed.
In a slow, steady stream, pour in the beaten eggs whites from high above the pot, stirring as the whites hit the liquid.
The whites will cook upon contact with the hot soup, forming ribbon-like tendrils.
Mix in the cilantro and scallions…
…and stir well.
Ladle the West Lake Beef Soup into bowls and serve immediately.
Looking for more recipe ideas? Head on over to my Recipe Index. You’ll also find exclusive recipes on my iPhone and iPad app, and in my cookbooks, Nom Nom Paleo: Food for Humans (Andrews McMeel Publishing 2013), Ready or Not! (Andrews McMeel Publishing 2017), and Nom Nom Paleo: Let’s Go! (Andrews McMeel Publishing 2021).
PRINTER-FRIENDLY RECIPE CARD
West Lake Beef Soup
Ingredients
- ½ pound flank steak finely minced or ground beef
- 1 teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt
- 2 teaspoons rice vinegar
- 1 teaspoon Red Boat fish sauce
- 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
- ¼ teaspoon ground white pepper
- 6 cups Instant Pot bone broth or chicken stock
- ¼ pound fresh shiitake mushrooms stemmed and thinly sliced
- ¼ cup arrowroot powder
- 3 large egg whites lightly beaten
- 1 cup fresh cilantro finely minced
- 3 scallions thinly sliced
Instructions
- Combine the beef, salt, vinegar, fish sauce, sesame oil, and ¼ teaspoon ground white pepper in a bowl. Mix well.
- Bring the broth and mushrooms to a boil over high heat in a large saucepan. Lower the heat to maintain a simmer.
- In a small bowl, whisk ¼ cup arrowroot powder with ¼ cup water to make a slurry.
- Stir the arrowroot slurry into the simmering broth to thicken it.
- Once the soup thickens, add the marinated meat and stir well. As soon as the meat is cooked through, turn off the heat. Taste the soup and season with salt and white pepper if needed.
- In a slow, steady stream, pour in the beaten eggs whites from high above the pot, stirring as the whites hit the liquid. The whites will cook upon contact with the hot soup, forming ribbon-like tendrils.
- Mix in the cilantro and scallions and stir well. Ladle the West Lake Beef Soup into bowls and serve immediately.
Scott says
I’m a white guy married to a Cantonese lady. I am trying to make her something a bit traditional. I have an instant pot. Can I make this in the instant pot or should I stick to stove top? I need to check if I have a large enough sauce pan.
Scott says
If I must do stove top, I only have a 2 quart sauce pan. Do I need a larger one?
Enid Coleslaw says
Hey thanks for this! I bought Food for Humans a few years back but dunno how I managed to miss this recipe. I’m a big fan of thick Chinese soups (羹) and it never occurred to me to try them at home. This is gonna be on regular rotation for me!
Keytoe says
So, ten minutes for prep time? That must be AFTER you’ve made the bone broth, chopped the meat, sliced the mushrooms, and sliced the scallions. Maybe if you use store bought broth and ground beef. Bone broth in the Instapot and chopped meat in the frig. Looking forward to West Lake Beef Soup tomorrow ;-D
L says
🤎🤎🤎This is my favorite soup. I have used fresh mushrooms and dried after soaking and both taste great. I also have the butcher at Whole Foods cut up the flank steak as small as he/she can and it amazes me how quickly it cooks. This soup is so hearty and comforting. Have made it about 5x and can’t wait to make it again. Thank you! 🤎🤎🤎
Carole says
What did I do wrong? The ground beef was hard- the shitakes could have used more time and I tried to salvage it but had to throw the whole thing away. The soup was delicious!
Bonnie says
I loved the soup! Used dried mushrooms and a little of their liquid instead of broth. Also used xanthan gum as thickener because I’m keto and just a little did the trick. So delicious! Thx Michelle!!
StacyB says
I’ve made this soup many times. This last time I made it I used some substitutions. Because shiitake shrooms are very expensive currently, I used portobello shrooms,
we stopped eating beef and instead used deer steak, and xanthan gum instead of arrowroot, because I couldn’t find my arrowroot. Despite using these subs, this soup was still a big hit.
B says
Love this soup! Have eaten it 4 days straight and could go right on eating it. Used ground beef since that’s what I had, but will get flank steak for next time. So, so satisfying as the weather’s gotten colder.
Rosewood says
This soup is so delicious! My partner and I totally over ate. He threw a serving of the spaghetti squash I made from your instant pot recipe (which is brilliant) into it when I wasn’t looking —at first I was upset but it was actually pretty good too. Thank you for so many fabulous healthy recipes ❤️
WestVanMan says
Seems like a good recipe. Video though is waaaay too long. Asking to leave out cilantro is like asking to leave out cheese from lasagna. Better to leave out the question. And it’s unfortunate the video used whole eggs and not egg whites as is the classic and proper way to make it. She talks about the beauty and fond memories of the soup which would have been made with egg whites only. So the egg tendrils she talked about never materialized using whole eggs.
Katherine Nobles says
The local stores now carry “carne picada”, which is a coarse chopped beef. I’m going to try this soup with that.