Chinese hot sour soup is something that you can get it basically any chinese restaurant as starter. Though it is pretty simple to make yourself and with a bit more vegetables and some tofu it is a very nice main dish.

Ingredients

For two portions:

Step 1

• 1tsp sesame oil
• 2tbsp rapeseed oil
• 20g spring onion
• 1/2 tsp white pepper crushed
• 7g finely chopped ginger

Step 2

• 500g chicken stock
• 1tbsp soj sauce (20g)
• 1tbsp rice vinegar (12g? double check next time)
• 3 dried shiitake mushrooms
• 1/2 jar bamboo sprouts

Step 3

• 100g carrots (ca. 2 pieces)
• 100g red paprika (ca. 1/2 a piece)

Step 4

• 2 eggs

Step 5

• 1.5 tbsp corn starch (15g)
• 1.5 tbsp water (25g)

Step 6

• 150g tofu

Instructions

Start by soaking the shiitake mushrooms in hot water for about 15 minutes. In the meanwhile slice the carrots and paprika as thin as you can. Trust me for a really good mouth feel you need to have them as thin as possible. The same holds tru for the shiitake mushrooms. Cut them very fine.

Measure the other ingredients and start by frying the spring onions and white pepper in the listed oil. Note: I listed the ingredients in the order to put them in the soup to make it a bit simpler. So in the first step, put the first bulk of ingredients in a pot and let them fry for a few minutes.

Afterward add the next block of ingredients, including the chicken stock, soj sauce, vinegar and the soaked and cut mushrooms. Let that simmer for about 10 minutes.

Now add the other vegetables. Scramble the eggs in a jar and pour it into the boiling soup under constant stirring. This will look very bad while doing so, just ignore the looks and go on.

Once the soup is again at a boil, add in the corn starch water mix. This will thicken the soup a bit.

At the end add the tofu. Let this simmer for about 3 minutes and you are ready to go.

Notes

First time I tried this I did forget the mushrooms. Now the taste was obviously different than expected, though it still was a good soup. However, I would reduce the vinegar down to maybe 1.5 tbsp as it is very intense without mushrooms.

I reduced the vinegar to 1tbsp which really made the overall taste better. I also noted that bamboo sprouts is a typical ingredient for such soups and I added it to the recipe as it did enhance the overall flavor a lot.