With just 216 calories, Hot and Sour Soup just happens to be one of the healthiest mushroom soup recipes in the world! A Chinese restaurant favourite, it’s hearty, savoury, sour – and as spicy as you want it to be.
Filled with mushrooms, tofu and silky egg ribbons, Hot and Sour soup is thickened with cornflour/cornstarch so the broth is beautifully glossy. Serve as a starter with Fried Rice and Kung Pao Chicken, or have it as a meal!
Hot and Sour Soup
Can you handle the heat??
Hot and Sour Soup is what I order when I go out for Chinese and am pretending/trying to be healthy.
Hot and Sour Soup is also what I order just because I love it.
OK, well along with Spring Rolls, Chinese Corn Soup, San Choy Bow (Lettuce Wraps), Egg Foo Young (Chinese Omelettes) and Sesame Toast. It’s an all-out war of indecision, trying to decide what starter to have! #FirstWorldProblems
I never thought to make it at home until I happened across this recipe from Woks of Life. It’s my go-to website for Chinese recipes, run by a Chinese American family who used to run a Chinese restaurant!
What is hot and sour soup??
Hot and Sour soup is a Chinese soup that’s savoury, spicy and tangy. The broth is thickened and it’s filled with mushrooms, tofu, bamboo shoots and silky egg ribbons. The flavour and textures in this soup are an addictive combination, making it a firm Chinese restaurant favourite!
What goes in Hot and Sour Soup
The soup broth
Chinese Hot and Sour soup broth is made with chicken stock which is flavoured with typical Asian ingredients such as soy sauce, sugar, pepper and ginger. The soup is thickened slightly using cornstarch/cornflour – I love how the glossy broth coats the ingredients when you scoop it up!
The spiciness comes from finely chopped dried chillies. Red pepper / chilli flakes are a perfect substitute. Feel free to adjust spiciness to your taste!
The sourness comes from plain white vinegar. Some recipes use Chinese black vinegar or rice vinegar, but I honestly think white vinegar gives the cleanest flavour.
And the stuff that goes IN Hot and Sour Soup
Dried shiitake mushrooms
wood ear mushrooms
bamboo shoots
firm tofu
egg
shredded chicken (or drop in slices of tenderised Velveted Chicken)
shallots/scallions
Because there’s a few ingredients that aren’t mainstream here, I’m going to do a quick rundown on each of them. If you’re bored, skip to the recipe!
The Mushrooms
Dried shiitake mushrooms – dried is best because it has the best flavour, so if you really want one as good as how your favourite Chinese restaurant makes it, you’ll need to source some. Sold at major supermarkets nowadays, and also Asian stores. Subs: Fresh shiitake is good, followed by any other Asian mushrooms, Swiss Brown/Cremini mushrooms and bringing up the rear is good ole’ white mushrooms
Wood ear mushrooms – named as such because they are shaped like ears (does that freak you out? 🙀), they have a soft crunchy texture. Wood ear mushrooms don’t have much taste when raw, but they are a great flavour sponge as well as adding great texture to the soup. Use fresh or dried – I use fresh because it’s sold at a local grocery store (eg Harris Farms). All Asian stores should carry dried, and some will have fresh. Subs: More shiitake mushrooms.
And the other stuff in Hot and Sour Soup
Bamboo shoots – sold in cans at large grocery stores (Woolies, Coles, Harris), they have a crisp juicy texture and have a subtle taste. Mainly for texture in this soup. Subs: Any vegetable with a similar texture that can be cut into strips, like carrot, green beans, stalk of broccoli or cauliflower, or Asian greens. Use leftovers for stir fries, it’s ideal!
FIRM Tofu – Make sure it’s a firm tofu otherwise it will disintegrate when stirred. Squeeze the packet to be sure! If you can only get soft tofu, handle delicately and stir it in right at the end.
Chicken – I like to have a bit of protein in my Hot and Sour Soup, plus it’s poached in the broth so it adds flavour. But this is optional – there’s plenty of stuff in this soup even without! Alternatives: Shrimp/prawns, pieces of fish.
Eggs – to make the signature silky egg ribbons!
Shallots – aka scallions, green onions
How to make it
While the list of ingredients seems lengthy, the making part is very straight forward. Also, this recipe has a nice flow to it so it should be done from start to finish, including prep time, in about 40 minutes:
Start by soaking the shiitake mushrooms to rehydrate them
Pour the chicken stock into the pot and as it’s coming to the simmer, measure out and add all the flavourings
While the chicken is poaching, get all the other “stuff” for the soup prepared (chop mushrooms, bamboo shoots etc etc)
Tip it all in the pot and finish by thickening the Hot and Sour Soup with cornstarch / cornflour and adding egg to make the egg ribbons
Calories in Hot and Sour Soup – just 216 calories!!!
A big bowl of spicy-tangy-savoury-hearty deliciousness, and it’s just 216 calories. There are very few Chinese takeout favourites that are this healthy!
The only other ones I can think of is Chinese Lettuce Wraps (San Choy Bow) and Egg Foo Young, but they aren’t as filling in their own right so when you add a good pile of Fried Rice, it isn’t quite as low cal. 😂
Add ins: I’ve been known to add leafy Asian greens and even baby spinach to up the veg quota. I’ve also been known to add rice, to fill it out. It’s really, really good! – Nagi x
PS Giving myself a big pat on the back for (finally) adding another recipe into my Low-Cal recipe collection!
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Spring Rolls – better than egg rolls!
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The BEST Chinese Soup for a cold!
Hot and Sour Soup is the BEST Chinese Soup for a cold! The clear broth, vinegar and spiciness are ideal for clearing chest and nasal congestion, and it’s a relatively light soup (though full of flavour!) so it’s easy to digest.
So when you want something different to Chicken Noodle Soup or Chicken Rice Soup when you’re feeling under the weather, try Hot and Sour Soup!
Watch how to make it
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Hot and Sour Soup
Ingredients
- 220 g / 7oz chicken breast
- 12 dried shiitake mushrooms (or 150g/5oz fresh) (Note 1)
- 1/2 cup wood ear mushrooms , chopped 1.5cm/ 3/5″ pieces (Note 1)
Hot and sour soup broth:
- 1 tsp dried chilli / red pepper flakes , adjust spice to taste (Note 2)
- 2 tsp dark soy sauce (Note 3)
- 1 tbsp light soy sauce (Note 3)
- 1 tsp ginger , finely grated
- 1/2 tsp white pepper (sub black)
- 6 cups (1.5L/1.5qt) chicken or veg stock/broth , low sodium
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1/4 cup (65 ml) white vinegar (adjust to taste)
Soup:
- 125 g / 4oz firm tofu (~ 1 cup) , cut into 1.2cm / 0.5″ cubes (Note 4)
- 1/4 cup bamboo shoots , thinly sliced (Note 5)
- 2 eggs , whisked
- 1/4 cup (40g) cornstarch/cornflour
- 1/4 cup (125 ml) water
- Salt to taste
- 1 shallot/scallion , finely sliced
Instructions
- Cover shiitake mushrooms with plenty of boiling water. Stand 20 – 30 minutes until soft, drain, then slice thinly. (Discard or reserve liquid for other use)
Poached chicken:
- Place chicken broth, ginger, soy sauces, chilli, sugar, pepper and sesame oil in a large pot over medium high heat.
- Once simmering, add chicken, cover and reduce heat so it’s simmering.
- Cook 10 minutes, remove chicken and shred.
Finish Soup:
- Add vinegar, shiitake, wood ear mushrooms, bamboo shoots, tofu and shredded chicken into the soup.
- Stir, simmer for 10 minutes.
- Mix cornflour with water. While stirring soup at a medium pace, slowly pour the cornflour mixture in (ensures no lumps).
- When it starts simmering again, stir constantly and slowly pour egg in a thin stream – this will create the signature “egg ribbons”.
- Taste – add salt if desired, more chilli if you want.
- Add shallots and serve!
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Life of Dozer
Still pursuing a no dried-dog-food diet for Dozer, incorporating fresh meat and even vegetables (with advice from a professional!).
But if a single bit of kale doesn’t get blitzed up completely, he picks his way around it… #brat
I have never been more proud of anything I have made! This soup is fantastic and I am shocked how wonderfully the flavours come together. I have just had leftovers from yesterday and it continues to be fantastic. Thank you Nagi for this recipe!
Hi, Nagi! Made this for dinner and it was perfect! 🙂
Just curious. Can I use black vinegar instead of white?
Thank you!
Hi Rianne, you can use black if you prefer, the flavour profile is different through 🙂 N x
Thank y
Hi Nagi. I hope you can help me. Something went wrong with this recipe. Yours is a lovely brown, but mine is a milky dreadful color, kind of white-ish and unappetizing in looks. It tastes OK, but still needs more zip, but I didn’t add as much of the red pepper flakes as I could/should have. But that wouldn’t change the color. Please…do you have any idea what I may have done wrong? I love hot and sour soup, but not the version I made!
Hi Phyllis, all I can put it down to is the eggs, is it bits of eggs that may be over scrambled in your soup rather than nice ribbons? N x
LOL = oops Hot and Sour not Sweet and Sour
My husband’s favourite take out Chinese is Sweet and Sour soup and didnt think it was possible to replicate. Made your recipe tonight and he literally ate the entire pot and now calls this his “birthday soup”
Shallots are not the same as scallions.
Hi Barb, same thing just called something different depending on where you’re located. Here we call them Shallots – which are what you may call scallions. N x
5 out 0f 5 for sure.
Hi Nagi, I took your recipe for hot and sour soup, and made my own version, because I didn’t have some ingredients in my pantry, but followed it as close as possible, It was amazing, can’t wait to make it again, left out chicken, needed to keep it vegetarian, love your recipes.
Very tasty! The basic broth is good (w/o the vinegar). I’ll use it for other soups. I added 2-3 tsp of hot chili oil.
Hi, Nagi.
Wonderful!!! Thank you for this terrific hot and sour soup.
I made it last nite and took about 1.25 hr. from start to finish.
The broth flavors were great and the soup was so tasty. I have leftovers for lunch today. Yippeee.
Even my 93 y.o. mom liked it a lot. I sprinkled crispy wonton strips on top of our bowls (got those for another one of your recipes to make).
Couldn’t keep Mom out of the wontons. ha.
I wasn’t able to get the wood ear mushrooms at my store, unfortunately but the other sliced mushrooms were great – 8 oz but mom said less next time. ha.
I’m not a fan of bamboo shoots so will use bean sprouts and/or sliced water chestnuts.
I added the firm tofu (will get extra firm next time as it disintegrated) and 8 oz of chopped chicken breast, which was a mistake not to shred. I was too lazy to shred it.
Next time (can’t wait to make again!) will omit the chicken and just go with the tofu.
Dialed back the chili spice (dried chili flakes aren’t the best cuz they don’t blend as a sauce so will use chili oil splash next time.
And I will buy white pepper as I read it’s traditional vs. the black pepper I used.
In spite of all my little options, it was terrific! It’s a learning experience.
Wonderful. xoxoxoxo
Thanks, Nagi.
Hey Nagi, this recipe forgot to mention when to add in the pepper😬 But I looked at yr video, so all good . Just thought to let u know
Thanks Suzanna, I’ll fix it now. N x
Winner winner soup dinner. My family loved this recipe. The broth, omg. Yummmmmm. Thx nagi
Hi Nagi, I have a question. The recipe asks for 12 dry shiitake mushrooms. The shiitake mushrooms I bought are dry but they are all cut in slices. Around how many grams or cups of dry shiitake mushrooms would I need? Or how can I convert hydrated mushrooms to dry? Thank you! Looking forward to trying this.
With “convert” I meant the weight :p
YES! I love this recipe, it’s so good, but I also would love a weight for dried mushrooms, the ones I can get also come sliced.
We add snow peas to ours for extra fresh crunch.
Hello from Texas ,Nagi , I have not had hot and sour soup in over 30 years , and it was a a Korea restaurant that had a charcoal grill in center of the table ,,,,great ta make you sweat and clear the sinuses ,never saw it on a Chinese menu in California ,where I lived at the time ,what is the difference in ingredients ??
Hi Joseph, as far as I know, traditional hot and sour soup is Chinese – unless the Korean restaurant did their take on it, I haven’t seen an Authentic Korean restaurant do a hot & sour soup. They do however have Yukaejang – a spicy beef soup. N x
OMG this is the best soup ever …. so tasty and healthy!! A winner in my household and have added to my repertoire of meals. Thanks Nagi!
Wahoo!! Thanks so much for letting me know Pauline! N x
Made this today to share with a friend for lunch, absolutely delicious. Thank you so much Nagi for your wonderful recipes.
Soup-er yummy and unbelivably easy for such great flavours!
Not ordering from those famous dumpling joints for hot and sour soup anymore!
I was given a box of mushrooms so I hopped online to see what conventional recipes there were to make good use of them. Came across Nagi’s (have been enjoying many of your recipes lately) sweet and sour. With trepidation I decided to give it a go (as for last 40 years have been eating the same mushroom recipe) and result was one tasty dish of which will now be my go to. Even though I didn’t have the right amount Of shiitakes etc the Swiss browns were very flavoursome. Didn’t have Tofu or chicken but the few prawns I put in there were great. Replaced bamboo shoots for water chestnuts and the rest was as per recipe. Just had it the next day and the flavours are even more intense and delicious. Thanks Nagi, keep them coming!
Just made this Soup and its the best one i have ever done great recipes Nagi
Thanks so much Bob! N x