This Savory Soy Milk Soup with Fried Dough, or Dou Jiang You Tiao, is a popular breakfast/brunch item in China. It’s the simplest thing you’ll ever make, after a quick trip to the Chinese grocery store. It’s basically a soy milk soup, curdled slightly with the vinegar, and flavored with scallions, sesame oil, pickled radishes and the crispy fried dough. Okay, so this dish isn’t out there winning any mainstream awards. But we used to go to this Shanghainese restaurant for Sunday brunch, and almost everyone in the restaurant made sure to order a bowl of dou jiang along with their scallion pancakes and soup dumplings.
If you can’t find unsweetened soy milk, you can buy a soy milk maker: try out this Soyajoy maker or this Joyoung maker. We have a Joyoung maker at home, which works really well, but the Soyajoy one seems really popular on Amazon. Basically, you can find dried soy beans at your local Asian mart. Soak them overnight and put them in the Soymilk maker the next morning. You’ll be rewarded with fresh, hot soy milk in minutes. Now that we’re in China, we can buy it everywhere, but in the U.S., that was how we made it.
See our Ingredients Glossary for more information on the Chinese black vinegar, which is used in several of our other recipes, like this Seared Asian Salmon w/ Lemon Cilantro Edamame Puree or as a dipping sauce for these dumplings. You can get the fried crullers in the refrigerated section near the tofu and noodles. Just toast them quickly in the oven at 325 degrees until crispy, and add them to this soup. Or, you can make our Homemade Youtiao recipe.
Another interesting ingredient is the pickled mustard root, which you can find in the Chinese grocery store.
You’ll need:
- Unsweetened plain soy milk
- Chinese black vinegar
- Salt
- White pepper
- Sesame oil
- pickled mustard root
- chili oil (optional)
- dried shrimp (optional)
- chopped scallion
- Chinese fried crullers, toasted and cut into slices
In a pot, heat up the soy milk. In a serving bowl, add a couple teaspoons vinegar, salt and white pepper to taste, a drizzle of sesame oil, a couple teaspoons picked radish, and the chili oil and dried shrimp, if using (you can adjust the quantities of all these ingredients according to your own taste). Pour in the hot soy milk and let stand for a minute, without stirring. Garnish with chopped scallion and fried dough. Serve!
- Unsweetened soy milk
- Chinese black vinegar
- Salt
- White pepper
- Sesame oil
- pickled radishes
- chopped scallion
- chinese fried crullers, toasted and cut into slices
- In a pot, heat up the soy milk. In a serving bowl, add a couple teaspoons vinegar, salt and white pepper to taste, a drizzle of sesame oil, and a couple teaspoons picked radish (you can adjust the quantities of all these ingredients according to your own taste). Pour in the hot soy milk and let stand for a minute, without stirring. Garnish with chopped scallion and fried dough. Serve!
Juni says
The “pickled radish” you mentioned in the recipe is actually pickled mustard, not radish. It’s zha cai/榨菜. Sorry for the nitpick ^_^” It’s just that people from Taiwan and Shanghai love this pickle and it’s a huge reason why this soy soup is a favourite of many–pickled mustard’s unique flavour makes the scallions, dried shrimp, and chili oil really shine in a way that pickled radish doesn’t. Pickled radish btw is also a widely sold product (also sold in those small pouches) but tastes and is used totally differently, so non-Chinese readers might see this recipe and buy that by mistake.
Judy says
Thank you so much for pointing that out, Juni! I will update the post.
NotBuyingIt! says
Been searching everywhere for this recipe since I saw Mike Chen introduce the traditional Taiwanese version on his YouTube channel! It looked so delicious! I should have known to come directly here! You guys are truly the BEST! Thank you <3
Judy says
hehehehehe…Thank you very much!
Carolyn Sloboda says
Can you use unsweetened soy milk from the local grocery store or do you have to buy the soy milk from an Asian market to make this dish? Is there a different taste? Btw, I love your site!!
Judy says
Hi Carolyn, the soy milk for this soup needs to be concentrated, so I always make it from scratch. If you like soy milk, it’s worth it to invest in a soy milk maker. This reminds me that I have to write a post on how to make soy milk. Thank you for the reminder :-)
Margie says
Hi Judy! I remember trying a soup similar to this but with chunks of silken tofu in it and not very much broth (which happened to be clear, not soy milk-y). It was topped with pickled veg, soy sauce, scallions,etc. It had a lovely savoury flavour to it and was very refreshing. Would I be able to make something similar using this recipe but with silken tofu? Thank you!
Judy says
Hi Margie, what you are talking about is 豆腐花. I thought about the same idea––I need to give it a try.
Scott says
Could you have had 豆腐脑 (doufunao, or “tofu brains”)? It’s a northern style breakfast food with douhua in a savoury broth.
Jerryj says
Had this for breakfast in Taipei years ago. I have seen it in San Francisco though. Loved it for breakfast. I’ll make and buy the donuts in Chinatown.
Judy says
Awesome, Jerry! Hope you will like it.
Frances says
This is a terrific blog and thanks for posting the soy soup recipe. Had a craving for this and many shops that aid Shanghai or Taiwan breakfasts no longer make this soup. Tried this recipe this morning and it is really easy. Only thing I’d add is that it takes a good bit of salt to make the soy milk truly savory.
Judy says
Thank you, Frances, for leaving us a comment. Salt brings out the flavor for sure.
Sans says
That sure looks very tasty, btw how do you know how to make ‘beany’ soy milk? yes ‘beany’, I’d love to extract the most beany flavor from the soy bean if I can. Hehe, thanks.
Olivia says
If you want to make great plain soy milk, soak a bag of dried soy beans over night. Then, take the soybeans, put it in a blender and cover with boiling water in a roughly 2:1 ratio of water to beans and then blend until smooth. Strain the liquid through a cheese cloth or other straining method and put the strained liquid on the stove and bring to boil. Enjoy!
Judy says
Hi Sans, sorry to have missed your question and thanks to Olivia with the perfect answer. I love how this blog has become a forum to share cooking tips, family stories and/or simply to reminisce.
Honeyboy says
Nice recipe, thanks for sharing, but i got a question. Can i use white rice-vinegar instead of black vinegar or does it makes a big difference?
Judy says
Yes, you can use white rice vinegar. Thank you for trying out this recipe.