Hot and Sour Soup

  • Prep Time: 30 mins
  • Total Time: 50 mins
  • Servings: 5
  • About This Recipe

    “After trying many recipes, this one comes the closest to the soup served at my favorite Chinese restaurant. Be sure and have all ingredients cut, measured, etc. before you start, because it goes together fairly quickly once you get going.”

    Ingredients

  • 1/2 ouncedried wood ear mushrooms
  • 1cuphot water
  • 1tablespoonvegetable oil
  • 4ounceslean pork, julienned
  • 1bunchgreen onion, chopped, white part only
  • salt
  • fresh ground black pepper
  • 4ouncesstraw mushrooms( fresh should be washed or trimmed or sliced)
  • 1 (4ounce) cans sliced mushrooms
  • 2ouncesbamboo shoots, cut into matchstick pieces
  • 4ouncesbean curd, cut into strips or small pieces
  • 4cupschicken stock
  • 2teaspoonscornstarch
  • 1/4 cupwater
  • 1/4 cupsoy sauce( or more to taste)
  • 1/4 cuprice vinegar( or more to taste)
  • 1egg, beaten
  • chopped green onion top, from above bunch
  • Tabasco sauce
  • Directions

  • Soak wood ear mushrooms in hot water for 30 minutes.
  • Drain and julienne the mushrooms after removing tough center/core of each mushroom.
  • In a wok, over medium heat, add oil.
  • Season pork with salt and pepper.
  • When the oil is hot, add the pork and chopped white onions and stir fry for 2 minutes.
  • Add all mushrooms, bamboo shoots and bean curd.
  • Season with salt and pepper.
  • Sauté for 2 minutes.
  • Add the stock and bring to a boil.
  • Reduce to a simmer and cook for 5 minutes.
  • Dissolve the cornstarch in water.
  • Stir the cornstarch mixture into simmering liquid.
  • Bring back to a boil and cook for 2 to 3 minutes.
  • Reduce the heat to a simmer and add the soy sauce and rice vinegar.
  • In a wide circle, stir in the beaten eggs.
  • Stir gently until the eggs are cooked.
  • Season the soup with Tabasco sauce to desired hotness.
  • Reseason soup with salt and pepper to taste.
  • Serve in bowls, topping with green onion tops and crispy noodles (fried strips of wonton wrappers) if desired.
  • Notes————.
  • The Tabasco provides the hot, adjust quantity added according to taste.
  • More can be added at the table to allow for additional heat as desired!
  • The rice vinegar provides the sour;, so add more as needed until desired tartness is achieved.
  • The more soy added, the darker the overall color of the broth, but as it is high in sodium, add more in small quantities and taste accordingly, until desired flavor results.
  • White pepper can be substituted for the black pepper.
  • Although the fresh ground black pepper more strongly flavors the soup overall than the white pepper does.
  • Can be made vegetarian by eliminating the pork strips.
  • Reviews

  • “Fantastic recipe.You can really personalize the taste.Very quick, easy and tasty!”

  • “This is a really nice soup with a complex flavour; myhusband loved it. The recipe seems perfect to me,although I skipped some of the seasoning steps and added seasoning at the end instead.Thank you, Kathy.”

  • “This compares to the hot and sour soup I get from my favorite restuarant.I love it and will definitely make it again soon.Next time, I think I won’t add so many mushrooms as I prefer my soup with a bit more broth. Also, I had no clue what type of tofu so I got medium/hard. Next time I will get soft/medium.That you so much, Kathy!”

  • “Excellent hot and sour soup, KathyShu.It has the classic taste I was looking for but hadn’t yet found in a hot and sour soup recipe.I suspect rice vinegar is a must in terms of the right sour note.Thanks for posting this easy, tasty recipe for my favorite soup!”

  • “Looks very nice, can’t wait to try it. I would like to note, however, that contrary to the directions, it is not possible to make a chicken stock based soup vegetarian by simply omitting the pork strips!!!!”

  • “We enjoyed this soup, but the kids thought it was a bit too vinegary.I said I would cut back a bit on the vinegar next time although I didn’t think so.Thank you for sharing with us….we love Hot and Sour soup.”

  • “Very Good!It was exactly what I was wanting.”

  • “This is truthfully amazing!Id been to another recipe site that I tried to make this and turned out pretty bad. This was very easy to make and the proper proceedure. Thanks”

  • “i actually have never tasted this. No hot and sour soup for me. However, this is the recipe my husband requests when he’s sick. He says it’s perfect and even better than the Chinese restaurant’s. In a pinch, i’ve used chicken breast instead of pork. No complaints from him. i also add red pepper flakes. Thanks for the recipe, Kathy!”

  • “I made this without having the wood ear mushrooms, straw mushrooms, bean curd, and the green onions. It still turned out great. One time I used chicken and then no meat at all. This is a great recipe and tastes just like it does at the resturant. Thanks so much KathyShu. :-)”

  • “So delicious. I doubled everything and made enough for a week. That was last week…I’m making it again tonight. :D”

  • “I prepared ingredients, meaning to use another recipe for hot & sour soup, when I realised last minute that it was rather vague on certain details. Searched for another recipe on ‘Zaar and found this! Omitted the pork and straw mushrooms cos I didn’t have them in the kitchen, and substituted the red wine vinegar (which the last recipe had called for) for rice vinegar. It turned out quite well, only a little too salty, will add less soy sauce next time. I loved the effect that swirling the egg has, makes for lovely presentation.”

  • “Very good recipe.. I made it with veggie broth instead of chicken, skipped the pork and added golden mushrooms. The amount of vinegar the recipe calls for was too much for my taste.. I used about half.”

  • “This is excellent, just like we get at our favorite chinese restaurant.”

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