A hot and sour soup Chinese style recipe is always good. It is sure to warm you up when you are feeling chilly, it offers a true Asian flavor in every sip, and it makes a lovely appetizer.
There are different styles of hot and sour soup recipes to choose from, ranging from Chinese to Thai, from mild and aromatic to fiery hot. I love them all, or at least I love trying them all. Sometimes they are just that little bit too spicy for me! The good thing about making your own versions of hot and sour soup Chinese style though are that you can add as little or as much spice as you like.
The following hot and sour soup Chinese style recipe makes a delicious and authentic Chinese hot and sour soup, and it is very easy to make. Just get your ingredients together and add them to the pot in the right order. The final touches are drizzling beaten egg into the soup, so it cooks in strands, and garnishing with green onion.
Hot and Sour Soup: Serving Ideas
You can serve this hot and sour soup Chinese style as an appetizer if you wish, although I often have it for lunch and find it perfectly filling. It is surprisingly filling actually!
If you are going to present it as an appetizer, you will probably want to serve something Chinese afterwards, and vary the meat so if you are using chicken in the soup then don’t serve chicken as the entrée, and the same goes for the pork.
If you want to make this hot and sour soup Chinese style vegetarian, that is also possible. Just omit the chicken or pork and use vegetable stock. It won’t taste quite the same but why should the non-carnivores miss out?
Hot and sour soup is a wonderful option and you can make it as mild or as spicy as you want. You can also vary the garnish, swapping the green onion for cilantro perhaps, or adding a squeeze of lemon or lime to up the acidity (although the vinegar does a good job of that).
PrintHot and Sour Soup – Chinese Style
Chinese hot and sour soup is one of the best loved Asian soup recipes, blending the spicy with the aromatic, and offer a wonderful piquant flavor in every mouthful. This is a real comfort food and you will love this home-prepared version.
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 22 mins
- Total Time: 32 mins
- Yield: 10 1x
- Category: Appetizer
- Cuisine: Chinese
Ingredients
- 3 1/2 pints chicken stock
- 1/4 pound (115g) julienne cut lean pork or chicken
- 2 tablespoons garlic chili paste
- 14 oz (400g) can sliced bamboo shoots
- 14 oz (400g) sliced water chestnuts
- 14 oz (400g) baby sweetcorn
- 1/2 pound (230g) silken tofu, in 1/4 inch cubes
- 1 cup (100g) sliced shiitake mushrooms
- 14 oz (400g) can peeled straw mushrooms
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 3/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 4 beaten eggs
- 5 tablespoons cornstarch
- 1/4 cup (60ml) white vinegar
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- Finely chopped green onion, for garnish
Instructions
- Bring the stock to a simmer in a pot, then add the soy sauce, mushrooms and garlic chili paste and simmer for 10 minutes.
- Add the meat, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, corn, tofu and black pepper, and simmer for 10 minutes.
- Mix the cornstarch with 5 tablespoons of water and stir this in.
- Bring the soup back to a simmer and drizzle the beaten egg over the surface. It will cook in strands immediately.
- Garnish with green onions and serve right away.
Notes
- Make this a couple days ahead and the tofu will marinate in the soup, offering a richer, more intense result.
Photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/cchen/680622141