Ace Food Desk says here’s today’s tasty and easy vegetable and macaroni soup using pantry staples to enjoy with Kindness and Love xx A&M

Hetty Lui McKinnon is a food writer and cookbook author with a passion for vegetables. She’s the author of five vegetarian cookbooks, and won the James Beard Award for Vegetable-Focused cooking in 2024.

Originally from Sydney, Hetty is currently living with her family in Brooklyn, New York.

Macaroni soup is a true pantry meal. It can be simply made with stock cubes, and any diced vegetables are suitable, though I find frozen mixed vegetables the easiest.

This is the meal I ate the most growing up. My mother made it regularly for breakfast, usually as a treat for me as she knew it was my favourite.

The dish was unfussy: a simple broth made with stock cubes, to which she added rehydrated Chinese shiitake mushrooms, frozen mixed vegetables or peas, cubes of Spam and small pasta shapes like macaroni or shells. It was always eaten with lashings of Maggi Seasoning sauce and lots of white pepper. 

It was different to most of the bolder Cantonese dishes my mother cooked, and I assumed it was something she made up for her kids as a quick and easy meal.

A childhood meal with overseas origins

In 2019, while on a trip to Hong Kong, I was walking past McDonald’s when my eye honed in on a breakfast item that sounded familiar — Hong Kong-style macaroni soup. 

The accompanying photo was a bowl of what looked just like my mother’s macaroni soup, but with twisty pasta, an egg on top and a hash brown on the side. I was floored. 

An urgent reconnaissance mission revealed that my mother’s macaroni soup was a Hong Kong staple, often served as one of the Western-style dishes at cha chaan tengs — local cafes and diners — and a typical home-style dish.

I have made many different versions over the past few years, sometimes with a tomato soup base (it is often served this way in Hong Kong) or with an egg drop for extra heartiness. Today’s version harnesses the savoury superpowers of mushrooms to create a full-bodied umami broth.

Tips:

• Fresh versus dried shiitake mushrooms: I use fresh shiitake and Swiss brown mushrooms for contrasting texture and flavour. You can use dried Chinese shiitake mushrooms instead of fresh ones — rehydrate them in cold water for 2 to 4 hours (or overnight) or in boiling water for 30 minutes.
• Maggi Seasoning sauce substitute: You could substitute with soy sauce, but add to taste. Or you could omit and just use vegetable stock instead of water.
• Using fresh veggies: Frozen mixed vegetables or peas provide the perfect bite, but fresh vegetables such as broccoli, green beans or carrots are also fine — just make sure you dice them uniformly and quite small.
• Be careful not to overcook the pasta: I cook it until it’s not quite al dente, as it will cook some more after it’s added to the broth.
• The ginger coriander oil is completely optional: this dish is fine without it, but it does add a lively herbaceousness and richness to the broth. If you choose to go simple, you could just top with sliced spring onions or chopped coriander.

Ginger coriander oil can be made while the soup cooks. (ABC News: Hetty Lui McKinnon)

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