Chinese Hot & Sour Soup
8-10
servings10
minutes15
minutes126
kcal4
grams3
grams7
grams12
gramsI love hot & sour soup — especially during the winter and especially when I have a cold. It has all the comfort food, hug from grandma feel, plus some heat and some tang that will help clear your sinuses. Feel free to play around with the type of mushrooms or protein you use and adjust the heat and sour by playing with the chili paste and vinegar, respectively.
This soup comes together pretty quickly, so make sure all of your ingredients are prepped before you turn on the stove.
Ingredients
1 TB neutral oil
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp minced garlic
1 TB minced ginger
5 oz shiitake mushrooms, thinly sliced
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1/3 cup sliced green onion
5 oz pork tenderloin, thinly sliced
1/8 tsp Chinese five spice powder
2 quarts chicken broth
1 can bamboo shoots, sliced into strips (6-8oz)
1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup soy sauce, tamari or coconut aminos
1/4 tsp white pepper (optional to kick up the spice)
1/4 cup rice vinegar (optional to kick up the sour)
1 tsp chili paste, such as Sambal Oelek (optional to kick up the heat)
1 TB Swerve brown (optional to add a little note of sweetness)
2 tsp arrowroot flour or cornstarch
3 larg eggs, beaten
Directions
- Place a medium to large stockpot over low heat and add the neutral oil (I used MCT oil) and sesame oil.
- Add the garlic, ginger, mushrooms, red pepper flakes, green onion, pork (or other protein) and five spice powder. Stir until fragrent.
- Add the chicken broth, bamboo shoots, soy sauce (or coconut aminos) and apple cider vinegar and bring the soup up to a boil. Once the soup boils, reduce the heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes.
- At this point, give the soup a taste and decide if you want to ratchet up the flavor with any of the optional ingredients: white pepper (for general spice), rice vinegar (for more sour), chili paste (for more heat), and/or Swerve brown (for some sweet notes).
- Bring the heat back up to medium and stir in a slurry of 2 tsp arrowroot flour in 1 TB water. This will slightly thicken the soup.
- Then get the soup swirling and slowly pour in 3 beaten eggs to create the egg “ribbons”.
- Serve topped with green onions, cilantro, Thai basil and/or Sriracha
This looks great Steve. I look forward to trying this recipe.
Your humor sprinkled in with your demos is quite entertaining…”clean spoon” cracked me up. Thanks again! You’re doing a great job!
I made this tonight using chicken instead of pork due to what I had on hand. Turned out great, loved all the flavors. Thanks Steve!
This is definitely a keeper! I like how you have the additional options to tweak it according to taste (more sour, more spicy kick, etc.). Great recipe ♥
Thanks for this Steve!
I’ve made it twice now. The 2nd time I added a bit more each of garlic, ginger and 5 spice powder and tweaked it a bit for the protein source. I used shrimp (small prawns). They only take moments to cook and would have been overcooked and “rubbery” if added at the beginning. I added them after the arrowroot flour slurry and before doing the egg “ribbons”. They were still tender. The fam is raving over this soup. Definitely a keeper!!
I’m glad to hear you’re having fun experimenting with it.
GAME CHANGER for hot and sour using your recipe. I have been using one from a Szechuan cookbook that I “thought” was the bomb. Yours is less complicated and …dare I say TASTIER.
(No disrespect to Mrs Chaing)
Glad you like it.
Feel free to correct my typo using “one” not none
fixed
WOW! This is JUST what I have needed… SUPER EASY, freedom to “tweak” (what I like or have on hand) and GREATEST TASTE! This is the FIRST I have seen anyone use Chinese Five Spice, and it is EXACTLY what I have thought that this soup needs!
Thank you SO MUCH for sharing with all of us ;-D
Can I add extra firm tofu?
Sure!
Tofu really does deserve to be part of the recipe.
Loving my keto journey. Working my way through these recipes. Yum! Lost a ton of weight. Off meds these days and feeling great. Cheers