Vegetarian Hot Pot Recipe
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Vegetarian Hot Pot is one of our favorite midweek recipes. It’s so easy to start the broth, set it on the table and start adding in ingredients and eating as you go. It’s so much fun and my husband and I always love how we can sit and talk over Hot Pot for an hour as we eat and cook at the same time.
What is Hot Pot?
Hot Pot is a way of cooking that originates from China but has variations. The cooking pot is set at the center of the table, a heating element under it, and the ingredients are added through the meal.Â
The basics of Hot Pot is broth, raw foods like veggies or meats, then the sauces that you dip into.Â
Our recipe utilizes mushrooms as the base. But other variations include a chicken or pork broth as the base broth.Â
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Special Hot Pot IngredientsÂ
Most of your basic ingredients you can get at any grocery store. But we love going to our local Asian market and stocking up on special ingredients that really step up our recipes. Since Asian cooking is actually one of my favorite styles of cooking, A LOT of the meals we cook on a weekly basis are Thai, Korean, Vietnamese, Japanese, or Chinese. Â
Because we eat mostly vegetarian, I really love making Asian dishes that incorporate so many different vegetables and sauces.Â
One of the “Special” ingredients that we love for our Vegetarian Hot Pot, is Enoki mushrooms. They are long, thin mushrooms that have a noodle-like texture.Â
You can also find different types and textures of tofu, fish balls, and noodles. And don’t forget to check out the many different types of soy sauce. Â
You can even find premade hot pot broths. But we like to make our own soup base.Â
Good For Groups!
Hot pot is perfect for groups. In fact, we love that everyone gets a chance to create their own desired taste with sauces, vegetables, and pick the ingredients out of the broth that they will eat. Sometimes we will use several portable hot plates and have both vegetarian and non-vegetarian broths going. Table cooking is a great way for groups to gather and enjoy a meal together. You can even get a 2-burner hot plate and cook two broths at once at home.Â
Related: Vegetarian Pot Pie Recipe
Spicy Hot Pot Broth
Our base recipe is for a mushroom base, it’s not spicy but you can increase the spice level with red pepper paste, Gochujang, or chili garlic oil. Season it to your taste.Â
Prepare Your Vegetables
You want all of your ingredients bite-sized. Think of Hot Pot like fondue. You want to prepare all of your vegetables into portions that will be dropped into the soup and boiled.  You can use whatever vegetables you have available, but we really like bok choy, green onions, and for some heat, you could even add jalapenos!Â
To prepare your mushrooms, cut off the bottoms, wash, and separate. Be creative and try new mushrooms! King mushrooms have a nice meaty texture and hold up great in Hot Pot.Â
Order of Hot Pot Cooking:
When you have your broth at a boil, you will want to add the ingredients that take the longest time to cook, into the pot first. Potatoes always go in first because they take the longest.Â
Vegetables go in next, so they have a little time to good and a light crisp texture. Â
Lastly, the noodles go in for just a few minutes. Keep an eye on them the whole time. Rice noodles or precooked noodles only take about a minute.Â
Rice For Dipping
One of the fun things about Hot Pot is that the rice bowls are used for taking the ingredients out of the soup, dip into your dipping sauce, then tap on your rice bowl. This creates delicious rice and you eat in between bites of soup.Â
Fun Topping Ideas:
- Fried Tofu or shredded tofu
- Chili garlic oil
- Jalapenos
- Bok ChoyÂ
- Fish Balls
- Noodles
- Fish Sauce
- Rice
- Potatoes – Sweet and White
- Onions
- Carrots
- Radishes
Hot Pot Sauce Dips:
- Chili Garlic Oil, Soy Sauce,Â
- Brown Sugar, Soy Sauce, Sweet Thai Chili Sauce
- Garlic, Soy Sauce, Sesame Seeds, Fish SauceÂ
- Soy sauce, Rice Vinegar, Wasabi
- Garlic, Sweet Thai Chili Sauce, Sesame seeds, Sesame oil, Green Onions, Soy Sauce
In a heavy stockpot, add your sesame oil and your mushrooms along with your garlic. Saute for 3-5 minutes.
Carefully pour in your broth and bring to medium heat and begin to boil. Then gently add in all of your other ingredients. Let simmer for 20 minutes.
We like to then transfer our broth to an electric table-top pot and set to low-medium heat. When it begins to come back to a low boil, you can begin to add your hot pot ingredients.
Hot pot is meant to add your ingredients as you go along. So spread out your veggies, sauces, and tofu around the hot pot. We use a portable stove and like fondue, everyone gets a fork, spoon, and we have a slotted spoon for grabbing the ingredients at the bottom.
Ingredients
Directions
In a heavy stockpot, add your sesame oil and your mushrooms along with your garlic. Saute for 3-5 minutes.
Carefully pour in your broth and bring to medium heat and begin to boil. Then gently add in all of your other ingredients. Let simmer for 20 minutes.
We like to then transfer our broth to an electric table-top pot and set to low-medium heat. When it begins to come back to a low boil, you can begin to add your hot pot ingredients.
Hot pot is meant to add your ingredients as you go along. So spread out your veggies, sauces, and tofu around the hot pot. We use a portable stove and like fondue, everyone gets a fork, spoon, and we have a slotted spoon for grabbing the ingredients at the bottom.
