Growing up, hot and sour was my favourite soup. My mom used to buy these hot and sour soup mixes and I would boil hot water, add in powder and a beaten egg. It was a quick and easy soup. This homemade hot and sour soup has all the flavours I love, the slightly spicy and satisfying sour taste. With homemade hot and sour soup, you can add a lot of veggies into the soup. It certainly helps me to get some vegetables in (although I’m not picky with vegetables).
Hot and sour soup is closely related to another soup popular in Henan province. It’s called 胡辣汤 or translated as hot pepper soup. It’s heavily seasoned with pepper whereas hot and sour soup has vinegar it as well. Hot pepper soup is a thick hearty soup and often eaten at breakfast. The soup is often paired with thick flatbread. It’s very popular in China and there are many variations. The hot pepper soup has meat in it but most of the hot and sour soups I’ve had are vegetarian but adding meat is definitely an option!
Why I made this soup
I actually started to cook this soup during the pandemic. Before pandemic, I would never think about making some dishes that I find in restaurants because I could just buy it. Once the lockdown was in place, I started to cook more not only because of convenience, it was also to pass time. This was one of the dishes I made at home and it tasted delicious.
Ingredients
The base ingredients are dry wood ear fungus, bamboo and tofu. Now you can put many other ingredients in this soup. This soup is vegetarian but you can add meat to this as well, I would suggest to stir fry it before adding into the soup. Also you can top off with a beaten egg at the end. I also added tomatoes because they have a natural tanginess and sweetness which helps to enhance the soup.
Pro-tip:
- Grab a small amount of the wood ear mushroom, it will expand with water and be a lot more than you expect. If you don’t like too much of wood ear mushroom, grab less than 1/4 cup. Less is more!
- If you using meat, cut it into thin strips, season with some soy sauce, sugar, baking soda, a bit of salt. Then stir fry the meat or else your soup will be cloudy if you don’t cook the meat.
- Add half of the recommended amount for vinegar and pepper, taste and adjust. This way you can avoid over seasoning the soup.
Homemade Hot and Sour soup
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp neutral oil
- 2 tomatoes
- 2 scallions
- 1/4 cup wood ear mushroom
- 3 shiitake mushrooms
- 1 block firm tofu
- ½ cup bamboo shoots cut into strips
- 4 cups water
Sauce
- 1/4 cup black vinegar
- 1 tsp ground black pepper
- 3 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1½ tbsp corn starch mixed with water
- 2 1/2 tsp Salt
- 2 beaten egg
Instructions
- Reconstitute the dried shiitake mushrooms and wood ear mushroom, it should take about 15 minutes or overnight if you want to prep early
- Cut tofu into strips
- Strain out the bamboo from the can and take 1/2 and set aside. Cut the tomatoes into bite size pieces
- Roughly cut the wood ear mushroom into strips
- Place some oil into a pot and heat on medium high
- Stir fry the scallions and tomatoes for about 2-3 minutes, until the juices come out of the tomatoes
- Add in water and let it simmer
- Add the bamboo and simmer for 1 minute
- Add in the tofu and simmer for another minute
- Add in the shiitake mushroom and wood ear mushroom
- Immediately add the soy sauce, dark soy sauce, vinegar, sugar, black pepper and salt.
- Let it come to a boil
- Once all the ingredients are cooked, mix cornstarch and bit of water to form a watery mix. Pour into the soup to thicken it up.
- Drizzle the beaten egg into the soup and serve!
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