Homemade Hot and Sour Soup Recipe (video)

[Saviolo]

This is a Chinese take-out restaurant classic! It's a delicious soup, and it's pretty easy to make at home, aside from all of the knifework. It all takes place in a single pot (aside from whatever vessel you use to rehydrate the mushrooms). We used psyllium husks instead of cornstarch to thicken this soup, mostly to increase the fibre content. The psyllium had a very similar result to the cornstarch, so it definitely works nicely.

A word of warning! The black fungus usually expands *a lot* when you rehydrate it. You can see the tiny little brick we used in the recipe, and it expanded to fill the whole bowl. That may be the toughest ingredient to find for this recipe, along with the bamboo shoots. We're spoiled in our neighbourhood by having some really excellent Chinese and Indian grocery stores.

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[Probatim]

1. Bookmarking for later.

If this is half as good as I'd get in a restaurant, I'll be happy to try it.

[Saviolo]

2. Hope you enjoy!

We love it, it comes out very nicely, and definitely meets up to restaurant take out.

[Jilly_in_VA]

3. What if you're soy-intolerant?

I can't do tofu at all. It does horrible things to my internal workings (you don't wanna know). I've had to give up hot and sour soup for that reason. Also, the link want me to sign in to Patreon and I am not a member.

[Saviolo]

5. You can omit the tofu.

Honestly, you can play around with this recipe quite a bit. Leaving out the tofu would be just fine, it would just leave your soup a little less full. You could replace it with some fresh mushrooms (like cubed king oyster mushroom!) or even something like zucchini, but even just leaving it out would be fine.

Also, to watch the video on YouTube, click on the video itself, and it should take you to YouTube (or look for the link in the thumbnail that says "Watch On YouTube."

[pfitz59]

4. Lovely

my favorite

[Saviolo]

6. It is delicious!

That balance of spicy and sour is always a joy. And you can always spice it up, too!

[BobTheSubgenius]

7. It's pretty common knowledge that there are vast numbers of variants when it comes to Chinese food.

The Hot and Sour that I'm used to has only slight differences, but are bordering on significant, at least to me. First, "our" version has nowhere near that much veg in it, and I believe that the version you would get in rest's that serve it around here would be a little hotter. I have lived in the SW corner of BC my entire life, and between Greater Vancouver and Victoria, there is a huge Asian population, making a cornucopia of ingredients available. Maybe the slight differences are a bit of a regional thing.

Because the people I most often cook for have the palates of toddlers, I have to scale back any heat to the point that there is a tiny bit of warmth to a dish, falling quite short of "heat." I usually put a vinegar and pepper sauce, like Frank's, for example, on the table so people can heat theirs up if they choose, and not add too much extra vinegar.

A variation I've tried a couple of times that was very well-received was using fresh lime juice as a large portion (not all) of the sour, and a bowl of chopped cilantro that one can add to their bowl or not. I have always put a "shine" and silkiness on the broth with a whitewash, but the variation in this recipe seems like a good one!

H&S Soup is a VERY nice addition to anyone's repertoire, I believe, and one I've been making off and on for 50 years. Thanks for giving it exposure!