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Hot and Sour Soup (酸辣汤) - Authentic Chinese restaurant-style hot and sour soup made easy. The hearty broth is loaded with veggies and is so satisfying and healthy. The recipe includes notes on how to tweak the soup into a vegetarian one and to use whatever veggies you have on hand. #takeout #recipes #traditional

Hot and Sour Soup (酸辣汤)

By Maggie Zhu
4.91 from 83 votes
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 30 minutes
Servings: 4
Chinese restaurant-style hot and sour soup made easy! The hearty, spicy, sour broth is loaded with mushrooms, silky eggs, and tofu. I’ve included lots of notes so you can tweak the recipe with the ingredients you have on hand, plus how to make this dish vegetarian. {Vegetarian adaptable}

Ingredients

Rehydrate (*Footnote 1)

Pork (*Footnote 2)

  • 1/2 lb pork loin (or chicken breast) , cut into thin strips
  • 1/2 tablespoon Shaoxing wine
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 tablespoon cornstarch

Soup

  • 2 teaspoons minced ginger
  • 2 green onions , sliced, white and green parts divided
  • 2 tablespoons Chinkiang vinegar
  • 1 teaspoon white pepper powder (or 1/2 teaspoon white pepper powder for a less spicy dish)
  • 4 cups chicken stock (*Footnote 3)
  • 2 cups lily flower soaking liquid
  • 1/2 block firm tofu (8 oz / 227 g) , diced
  • 1 tablespoon light soy sauce (or soy sauce)
  • 3 tablespoons cornstarch
  • 2 eggs , beaten
  • 1 teaspoon salt , or to taste
  • 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil (or chili oil) (*Footnote 4)
US Customary - Metric

Instructions

  • Rehydrate dried ingredients: Gently rinse dried shiitake mushrooms, dried wood ear mushrooms, and lily flowers with tap water. Soak each of them with 2 cups warm water (*Footnote 5) in three big bowls. Rehydrate for 30 minutes to 1 hour, until tender. Slice mushrooms into strips. Snip off the tough ends of lily flowers and discard. Halve the lily flowers lengthwise. Remove tough ends of wood ear mushrooms, then chop into bite-sized pieces. Reserve 2 cups of the marinating water from lily flower.
  • Marinate pork: Combine pork, Shaoxing wine, salt and cornstarch in a bowl. Mix well by hand. Marinate for 10 to 15 minutes.
  • Mix sauce: Add Chinkiang vinegar and white pepper into a small bowl. Mix well until the white pepper is completely dissolved.
  • Make soup: Add chicken stock, lily flower soaking water, ginger, and green onion white part into a pot and heat over medium-high heat. Add rehydrated wood ear mushrooms, shiitake mushrooms, lily flowers, and tofu to the pot. Cook until bringing to a simmer. Add soy sauce and turn to medium-low heat.
  • Thicken the soup: Mix the cornstarch with 1/4 cup of water in a bowl until cornstarch is fully dissolved. Slowly swirl the cornstarch slurry into the soup. Stir to thicken the soup.
  • Cook the pork: Add the pork from step one into the soup, stirring several times to prevent the pork strips from sticking together.
  • Make egg ribbons: Slowly swirl in the beaten egg, using a pair of chopsticks or a fork against the bowl so the egg slowly drizzle into the soup to form ribbons. The egg should be scattered and not clotted. Let the eggs sit for 20 seconds to set, then gently stir to break up the eggs.
  • Season the soup: Turn off the heat. Add the vinegar and pepper mixture and stir to mix well. Add salt and taste the soup to adjust flavor. Garnish with green onion green part and drizzle with sesame oil. Give it a final stir. Serve hot.

Notes

  1. If you do not have these dry ingredients, you can use half a pound of fresh mushrooms instead. If not using dry ingredients, use 6 cups chicken stock instead of 4 cups stock + 2 cups soaking liquid. 
  2. For a vegetarian hot and sour soup, check out this recipe.
  3. Alternatively, you can also use 4 cups water plus 1 teaspoon chicken bouillon to replace the chicken stock. In this case, reduce the salt since chicken bouillon is quite salty.
  4. If you use less white pepper, you can use some chili oil instead of sesame oil. There are different ways to add spiciness to hot and sour soup, and some restaurants use chili oil for another layer of flavor. 
  5. Do not use boiling water, since it slightly "cook" the dried ingredients which cause them to lose flavor. Ideally, you should use cold water to hydrate the ingredients for 1 to 2 hours if time allows. But warm water speed up this process without causing the ingredients to lose too much flavor. 

Nutrition

Serving: 1serving, Calories: 216kcal, Carbohydrates: 9.1g, Protein: 19.9g, Fat: 11.1g, Saturated Fat: 3.3g, Cholesterol: 112mg, Sodium: 883mg, Potassium: 473mg, Fiber: 1.3g, Sugar: 1.6g, Calcium: 110mg, Iron: 3.6mg