Chinese Hot and Sour Soup

Hot and sour soup (酸辣湯) is a delicious combination of spicy hot pepper and vinegar to make a delicious soup. If you’ve never tried it, this combo works really well. Whats great about this soup is the light heartiness of this soup. The highlight of drinking of this soup is enjoying the variety of vegetables and the vinegar and spiciness aids digestion! The soup has bamboo shoots, wood ear mushrooms, and shiitake mushrooms to give the soup a nice bite with the broth.Thankfully, this soup is not your typical Chinese soup that takes hours to stew and make. This soup can be made quickly in 30 minutes with just a few ingredients. 

Where to buy the Ingredients?

The wood ear mushroom, shiitake mushrooms, bamboo shoots, and tofu can be purchased at any Chinese supermarket. If you don’t want to venture into buying these ingredients, you can use sliced carrots and zucchini to achieve that nice bite texture for this soup. 

Vegetarian Option

This soup can be made into a vegetarian option by swapping out the chicken broth with vegetable broth. Like I said, the highlight of this dish is the medley of vegetables that you can add to make this broth. 

Ingredients

• 1 can chicken broth (or vegetable broth)
• ¼ cup bamboo shoots
• ¼ cup wood ear mushrooms
• 3 shiitake mushrooms
• 1/3 of cube of silken tofu
• 1 egg white (optional)
• 2 tsp cornstarch
• 2 tsp water
• ½ tbsp Vinegar
• 1 tsp White pepper
• ½ tbsp Soy sauce

Instructions

1. Soak wood ear mushrooms and shiitake mushrooms in cold water to rehydrate. Rinse bamboo shoots in cold water. Slice mushrooms into tiny pieces. 
2. Once shiitake mushrooms and wood ear mushrooms are hydrated, drain water and julienne. 
3. Bring the chicken broth to a boil. Once broth is boiling, add in tofu, mushrooms, bamboo shoots and boil. 
4. In a bowl, combine cornstarch and water. Mix well and then add to soup. When soup is thick to desired consistency, add in vinegar, white pepper, and soy sauce to finish.
5. When soup is finished, turn off the stove. Add in egg white and stir quickly clockwise until egg white is cooked. 

Print