Hot and Sour Soup

Try this hot and sour soup with mushrooms, bamboo and tofu. Filled with warming spices and vegetable broth, with sourness from rice vinegar.

This is a perfect recipe for the winter and on a cold evening. It’s a really easy soup to throw together and so versatile in terms of what you can add into it. Hot and sour soup is just a huge bowl of comfort that packs a little punch and filled with an abundance of flavour.

Hot and sour soup has always been on my order at my local takeout and I’m pretty sure you can find this at ANY Chinese takeout in the UK. I used to order this whenever I felt the slightest bit run down at university, as a pick me up and it was always the best decision. This soup is always steaming hot, and it’s a little spicy- where it has a little tingle at the back of your throat. As stated by the name, it’s delightfully sour and that adds to the comfort factor. Hot and sour soup also has an almost gloopy texture and an amazing sheen to it from the corn-flour slurry that’s added in to it.

What you’ll need for hot and sour soup

For the broth you’ll require:

• Vegetable stock – either store bought or make your own. I’ll pop up my recipe for my East Asian inspired vegetable stock in the near future
• Whole spices – star anise, cinnamon, bay leaf + dried red chilli
• Light AND dark soy
• Rice vinegar – essential for sourness
• Chilli sauce (gochujang or sriracha will work well)
• Corn flour slurry – corn flour mixed with boiling water

And for the filling and vegetables, I’ve used:

• Shiitake mushrooms – or your favourite mushrooms
• Green cabbage
• Bamboo shoots
• Extra firm tofu
• Yuba – this is beancurd skin and can be bought fresh or dried from East Asian supermarkets. I used dried yuba which I cut into long strips and added to the broth, this replaces the egg ribbons in the original soup. If you can’t get hold of this, feel free to leave out

Hot and Sour Soup

dishbyrish

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Prep Time 15 minutes mins

Cook Time 20 minutes mins

Total Time 35 minutes mins

Course Soup

Servings 4 people

Ingredients

  

Ingredients:

• 1 ltr vegetable stock
• 1 star anise
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 dried red chilli
• 50 ml rice vinegar
• 2 tbsp light soy
• 2 tsp dark soy
• 1 tbsp chilli sauce of choice sriracha/gochujang will work fine
• 125 g shiitake mushrooms sliced
• Handful of green cabbage finely chopped
• 40 g bamboo shoots sliced (use as much as you like though)
• 200 g extra firm tofu cubed
• 300 ml boiling water
• 45 g corn flour
• 1 dried yuba sheet cut into thin strips
• Toasted sesame oil and spring onions for garnish

Instructions

 

Method:

• Place your stock, star anise, cinnamon, bay leaf, dried chilli, rice vinegar, light soy, dark soy and chilli sauce into a sauce pan. Cover completely and bring to a simmer on medium-low heat for 10 mins to allow the whole spices to infuse the broth
• Add your cabbage, mushrooms, bamboo shoots, tofu, and yuba strips, and continue to simmer for a further 5 mins
• Whisk together your 300ml boiling water and corn flour until lump-free, and slowly pour this into your soup whilst gently stirring the soup at the same time
• Place on a high heat and cook for 1 minute until the soup becomes glossy and thickened
• Serve up, drizzle with toasted sesame oil and a healthy garnish of spring onion

Notes

The yuba (bean curd skin) is totally optional, but it adds a great texture, and it also resembles the egg ribbons found in the traditional version of this soup. Dried beancurd skin is a pantry staple for me but I know it may not be for you, and if you don’t have it, don’t worry, just leave it out.
If using my homemade East-Asian inspired stock recipe, you can omit the star anise, cinnamon, bay leaf and dried red chilli.

Keyword hot and sour soup, shiitake mushrooms, soup, stock, tofu, yuba