Hot and Sour Soup

This restaurant-style Hot and Sour Soup recipe makes the best veg hot and sour soup! Thickened with cornflour/cornstarch, the broth of this hot and sour soup becomes gorgeously silky. Plus, It is hearty, deliciously comforting, spicy, and sour.

You can serve it as a starter or have it as a side dish of schezwan fried rice — your ultimate comfy meal is ready.

It is a quick and simple to make soup that is incredibly flavorful and packed with lots of fresh vegetables and spices.

Also, this delicious soup is vegetarian but it is easily adaptable, so you can modify it to your taste preferences.

This particular type of spicy, hot and sour soup recipe is quite popular in Indo-Chinese cuisine and is widely served in Indian restaurants and kiosks.

A hot bowl of this comforting, spicy, tangy, delicious homemade hot and sour soup is a blessing on a cool winter evening, it is sure to warm you up in the most delectable way. It gets done in 30 minutes from start to finish including vegetable chopping time.

On this page, you’ll find step-by-step photos, instructions, and video recipes to make the best tasting vegan hot and sour soup.

About This Hot and Sour Soup

This hot and sour soup is all about a bowl full of soothing, appetizing, and fiber-rich vegan soup which can make any winter evening comforting.

This soup has the ultimate taste of hot and sour soup with just the ideal amount of sourness and sweetness to balance the spiciness of this flavor-bursting soup.

This healthy soup is soul-satisfying, and after gobbling a couple of spoons, you would want to gulp some more until your tummy is entirely full.

Whenever I visit Indo-Chinese restaurants, I opt for this hot and sour soup. There are many like me who enjoy this soup at their favorite Indo-Chinese restaurants.

So if you are looking for that perfectly semi-thick textured chunky and veggie-loaded soup recipe, then this recipe is just perfect for you. It yields exactly the same tasting spicy, hot, sour, and mildly sweet soup.

Making this soup at home is amazingly easy, and it is straightforward to personalize it to your taste. If you like it tangier, add some more vinegar. Want more heat? Add more chili sauce. You can make it as spicy as you want it to be.

It can also be made with tofu, or you can make it with silky egg ribbons, chicken, or pork.

Just like a authentic hot and sour soup recipe, this recipe uses chopped green chilies, chili oil, red chili sauce, and white pepper powder for heat. White vinegar for sourness and a little bit of sugar for a mild sweetness to balance the spicy and sour flavors.

My recipe makes a meatless vegetarian version of this soup that is laden with plenty of freshly chopped vegetables. I didn’t add any type of protein here. This flavorful soup is light on the stomach and serves perfectly well as a starter along with other Indo-Chinese side or main dishes such as cauliflower manchurian, or Easy Veg Schezwan Noodles.

This Hot and Sour Soup

✔ is loaded with veggies

✔ is great for weeknight/weekend meals

✔ is ready in under 30 minutes

✔ is simple and easy to make

✔ is a comforting, and hearty dish that tastes super delicious

✔ is vegetarian & vegan and can also be made vegan gluten-free

✔ made with basic ingredients

✔ is so full of amazing textures and flavors

What is Hot and Sour Soup?

Traditionally hot and sour soup is a Chinese soup that is spicy, sour, and savory. It has a glossy semi-thickened broth loaded with vegetables, eggs, and tofu. This is a flavorful soup with so many amazing textures!

The broth of this soup can be made with vegetable, chicken, or pork stock. It can be prepared with meat, and it can also be made vegan or vegetarian.

Hot and Sour Soup Ingredients

This recipe makes a vegan hot and sour soup. Flavored with amazing Asian ingredients, this soup is very easy to make.

Vegetables -  I have used mushrooms, carrots, cabbage, french beans, spring onions, ginger, garlic, and green chilies.

Herbs - I have added cilantro stems in this recipe, but you can also add chopped celery.

Oil - I used sesame oil in this recipe, but you can also use any neutral oil.

Sauce - This recipe calls for dark soy sauce, you can also use a combination of dark and light soya sauce. Also, it has some chili sauce.

Spices & Seasoning - This recipe calls for some salt and ground pepper. Black or white both types of freshly ground pepper.

Sweetness - It has some mild sweetness, it has about 1/2 teaspoon of sugar to balance the spiciness and sour flavors. But adding sugar is completely optional.

Vinegar - The sourness in this soup comes from white vinegar. But you can also use rice wine vinegar or malt vinegar.

Water or vegetable stock - This soup recipe can be made either with water or vegetable stock.

Cornstarch - It is used for making cornstarch slurry, which is used as a thickener to make this broth semi-thick.

Benefits of drinking hot and sour soup

This spicy and sour soup not only tastes delicious, but it is also healthy to drink. It is a perfect cold remedy that helps in clearing chest, throat, and nasal congestion. It is also very light on the stomach, and it is easy to digest.

How to Make Hot and Sour Soup

Making this recipe is really easy and simple. This is how you can make it in 6 simple steps:

Step 1: Sauté ginger, garlic, and mushroom. Once cooked, add cabbage, carrots, french beans, and green chilies, and sauté them for 2 minutes.

Step 2: Meanwhile make a cornstarch slurry by mixing cornstarch and water.  

Step 3: Add stock and let it come to a boil.

Step 4: Add vinegar, chili sauce, sugar and cook until the soup reaches a simmer.

Step 5: Add cornstarch slurry and cook until it reaches the desired consistency. Add chopped green onions and mix.

Step 6: Season the soup with salt, pepper, and chili oil. Garnish hot and sour soup with spring onions and chili oil and serve.

For a full step-by-step picture and detailed video recipe, follow the instructions and video recipe shared in the recipe box on this page.

Serving Suggestions

This soup tastes great as a starter or it can be served along with the main dish. Here are some of my favorite dishes that go amazingly well with this veg hot and sour soup: Easy Veg Schezwan Noodles, Grilled Cheese Sandwich, Garlic Bread, Chow Mein Stuffed Puffs, Vegetable Hakka Noodles, or No Oil Green Thai Curry Chow-Mein Noodles.

You can also accompany it with other soups like Veg Thukpa Soup.

Storage Suggestion

Vegetable soup tastes best when you eat them straight from the stove, but you can also store the leftovers. This hot and sour soup stays fresh for up to 4-5 days when stored in an airtight container in a refrigerator. When you want to eat this soup, reheat it on the stove or in a microwave and enjoy a hot bowl of hot and sour soup.

Tips, tricks, and Variations to Make the Best Hot and Sour Soup

1. Mushrooms - They add such a nice meaty texture to this soup. I have used button mushrooms, but you can also use other mushrooms such as baby bella.

2. Heat -  Authentic recipes use green or red chilies, but if you don’t want to use fresh chilies or want to make them less spicy, then you can also use chili flakes.

3. Pepper - I have added white pepper to this soup, but black pepper can also be added to this soup. White pepper is a bit hotter than black pepper so you can also reduce the amount of it if you don’t like too spicy soup.

4. Tofu - To make this vegan soup rich in protein, you can add firm tofu. If you don’t find the firm tofu, then add silken tofu at the time of serving.

5. Meat version -  For making a meat-laden soup you can add shredded chicken, shrimp, prawns, or even fish chunks.

6. Gluten-free soup -  If you want to make this soup gluten-free, skip cornstarch and use potato starch for thickening this soup. Also instead of soy sauce, use Tamari.

7. Ginger & Garlic - Freshly chopped or minced ginger and garlic taste best in this soup recipe. However, if you don’t have fresh ginger and garlic then feel free to use ginger-garlic paste.

FAQ

What vinegar is best for making hot and sour soup?

White vinegar is my favorite when it comes to making hot and sour soup because it tastes best in this soup and it brings out that amazing sourness that complements the spiciness and savoriness of this soup. Other kinds of vinegar that go well are malt vinegar and rice vinegar.

What other veggies can be added to hot and sour soup?

I have added mushrooms, cabbage, carrots, french beans, and scallions in this recipe. Other vegetables that go well in this soup are bok choy, zucchini, broccoli, bell pepper, steamed corn, baby corn, napa cabbage, sprouts, peas, celery, and bamboo shoots.

How to make a thicker soup?

This soup has a semi-thick consistency with a clear shimmering broth. If you want it thicker then add more cornstarch slurry to it.

Can I Freeze Hot And Sour Soup?

Freezing this soup is possible. But it might change the texture and consistency. So if your soup has become thin after freezing, then add some cornflour slurry and cook until it thickens again.

Hot and Sour Soup [Recipe]

This restaurant-style Hot and Sour Soup recipe makes the best veg hot and sour soup! It is hearty, deliciously comforting, spicy, and sour.

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★★★★★
(Rating: 5 from 3 reviews)

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Prep time 🕐	Cook time 🕐	Total time 🕐
10 mins	20 mins	30 mins
Category ☶	Cuisine ♨	Serves ☺
Soups	Indo-Chinese	4
Nutrition Info ⊛		Serving size ⊚
139 calories		1

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INGREDIENTS

For Hot and Sour Soup

• 1/4 head of large cabbage, or 1 1/4 cups chopped
• 2 medium-sized carrots
• 5-6 button mushrooms
• 2 tablespoons sesame oil or any neutral oil
• 4-5 cloves garlic
• 1-inch ginger
• 1/3 cup French beans
• 1-2 small green chili
• 4 cups of water or vegetable stock
• 2-3 tablespoons coriander stems
• 2 tablespoons soya sauce
• 2 teaspoon red chili sauce
• 1 tablespoon vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon white or black pepper powder
• 1 teaspoon chili oil, or as per taste

For cornstarch slurry

• 2 tablespoons corn-starch
• 3 tablespoons water

For Garnish

• Spring onion, chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon chili oil
• Fresh coriander leaves

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INSTRUCTIONS:

Preparation

1. Peel the carrots and chop or grate them. Also, chop the cabbage and set it aside.
2. After that chop mushrooms, french beans, coriander stems, green chilies garlic, and ginger.

Stir-Frying Vegetables:

1. Heat oil in a saucepan or wok. Once hot, add ginger and garlic and saute for 1 minute on medium heat.
2. Add mushrooms and stir well, and saute on medium heat for 2 minutes or till the mushrooms become lightly browned.
3. Now add cabbage, carrot, french beans, green chilies and saute for about 1 minute.

Making hot and sour soup

1. Add vegetable stock, and mix. Bring it to a boil, and add chopped coriander stems. Mix well and let it boil over medium heat. Meanwhile, make a corn-starch slurry by mixing 2 tablespoons corn-starch with 3 tablespoons water. Keep it aside.
2. Once it starts to boil, add soya sauce, chili sauce, vinegar, sugar and mix everything well, and let it boil for 1 minute.
3. Now, turn the heat to low. Stir the cornstarch slurry and gradually add it to the soup. Keep stirring and mixing the soup.
4. Now add salt to taste, and mix well. Also add black or white pepper powder and mix again until everything is well combined.
5. Add spring 2-3 tablespoons spring onions and mix. Also, add 1/2 teaspoon of chili oil and mix.
6. Allow the soup to thicken on low heat. You need to cook it until it's semi-thick. Serving hot in a soup bowl and garnish with spring onion, chili oil, coriander leaves.

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NOTES:

1. I have used mushrooms, carrots, cabbage, french beans, spring onions, ginger, garlic, and green chilies. But you can also use other vegetables.
2. This recipe calls for dark soy sauce, you can also use a combination of dark and light soya sauce. Also, it has some chili sauce.
3. I have added freshly chopped cilantro stems in this recipe, but you can also add some chopped celery.
4. I used sesame oil in this recipe, but you can also use any neutral oil.

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Author: Anupama
Recipe Source Link: https://www.mygingergarlickitchen.com/hot-and-sour-soup/