Tomato Hot Pot Soup Base | The Woks of Life

Okay so to start the tomato hot pot base all you have to do is in a pot add ginger, the white parts of scallions, two scallions, a bay leaf, and some garlic and you're going to fry that until it's fragrant and now we're going to add the tomato paste. So this step you're going to fry the tomato paste until it's a really nice red color and this will give the hot pot base a deep tomato flavor and also bright red color. You want to be careful not to burn it though. It's a little dry. So now I'm just going to add salt and I put two teaspoons of salt because I'm just going to use water for my base. If you're using chicken stock that's already salted you don't have to add enough salt and a teaspoon of sugar. Okay so now I'm going to add the water eight cups of water. I'm going to add the mushrooms and stir. So rather than water you can feel free to use chicken stock or vegetable stock or mushroom stock but the great thing about this tomato hot pot base is that you really can just use water and tomatoes have a lot of flavor and this makes a great vegan hot pot base if you want to do an all vegan or vegetarian hot pot. So now we're going to bring it up to a boil and let it simmer for a little bit to let the flavors meld and then we'll be ready for hot pot. While our hot pot base comes up to a boil we make our dipping sauces. Each person has their own unique preferences but we all start with the same set of ingredients. The joy of hot pot is really eating as you go and while it may seem counterintuitive to dip everything in the same flavored sauce every different item gives you a different flavor combination. Now you're ready to sit back and enjoy your hot pot.