Growing up, hot and sour was my favourite soup. My mom used to buy these hot and sour soup mixes and I would boil them in hot water and add a beaten egg. This soup has all the flavours I love, the slightly spicy and satisfying sour taste. Also I LOVE the vegetables in 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 where 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 soup I’ve had is 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 tastes delicious. I was surprised how easy it is.
Ingredients
The base ingredients are dried lily flower stems, dry wood ear fungus, bamboo and tofu. Now you can put many other ingredients in this soup. It’s definitely very versatile. I’m trying to recreate the ones I’ve had in restaurants. I usually see bamboo shoots, wood ear mushroom, tofu and dried lily flower stems. I kept this 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 didn’t but it’s an option.
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 a small amount of cornstarch water at a time to get the desired consistency.
- Add vinegar and black pepper in increments to get the desired taste. The beauty of home cooking, you can customize to your taste!
Homemade Hot and Sour soup
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp neutral oil
- 1/2 cup dried lily flower
- 1/4 cup wood ear mushroom
- 1/2 block firm tofu
- ½ cup bamboo shoots cut into strips
- 4 cups water
Sauce
- 1/4 cup black vinegar
- 1 tsp ground black pepper
- 1 tsp dark soy sauce
- 3 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 tbsp corn starch mixed with water
- 2 1/2 tsp Salt
- 1 beaten egg optional
Instructions
- Reconstitute the dried lily flower stems and wood ear mushroom, it should take about 15 minutes or overnight if you want to prep early
- Cut bamboo and tofu into strips
- Roughly cut the wood ear mushroom into strips
- Cut the lily flower stems in half
- Place some oil into a pot and heat on medium high
- Stir fry the wood ear mushroom and lily stems for about 5 minutes
- Add the tofu and bamboo and stir fry for about 1 minute
- Add water
- 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.
- If you like, drizzle the beaten egg into the soup and serve!