Hot and sour soup (Suan La Tang) is a spicy Chinese soup popular across the country, especially in cold winter. It is a savory soup made with ingredients such as bamboo shoots, mushrooms, tofu, and egg and seasoned with peppers and black vinegar.
The origin of hot and sour soup
It is first invented for poor people who need to warm their bodies up. So lots of white pepper is used. The soup has been around since the Han Dynasty when it was used as a medicinal remedy for colds and flu. It is believed that the dish was invented during the Qing dynasty (1644-1912), but there is no exact date as to when it was first created.
It has different versions in China
In the Sichuan area, hot and sour soup is called Suan La Tang which is mainly cooked with chicken and pork stock.
In Northern areas, it is called Hu La Tang and usually with beef or lamb stock. Although there are some differences in texture including the color and flavors, they share lots of similarities too.
Dishes with long ingredient lists are popular in Chinese cuisine
There are lots of similar mixed dishes in China. In Chinese cuisine, we want to eat more types of vegetables in one meal. That’s a theory about balance and diversion. There are lots of similar dishes for example eight treasure rice, eight treasure congee, and Buddha’s delight.
Ingredients
Dried shiitake mushroom
Dried shiitake mushroom is much better than fresh mushrooms because of their flavor. The sun-drying process makes the ribonucleic acid much easier to release and hydrate. But it has stronger flavors compared with fresh shiitake mushrooms and is less smooth in texture. So the principles
- Use dried shiitake mushrooms for a better flavor of your hot and sour soup.
- Not too much to avoid dominating
Wood ear mushrooms
Wood ear mushroom provides a lovely black color and a crunchy texture to the soup. If you want a beautiful appearance of the soup, cut the wooden ear mushrooms into smaller pieces.
Soft tofu
Tofu performs to create a melt-in-mouth and super soft texture. So soft tofu will be the first choice for this soup.
Protein
You can use pork shreds, chicken shreds, cooked beef or lamb, and seafood as protein. In addition, ham, spam, and other already processed protein are also great for hot and sour soup. If you get high-quality ham, your soup will be quite amazing. If all of the processed protein is not by hand or not accepted, I suggest using coated pork shreds. In Sichuan cuisine, we have a very popular local snack named “水滑肉” which literally means sliding meat in water. It has a very lovely texture, is super tender inside, and is smooth for the shell. I will introduce the authentic version later. But you can have some basic idea about how the meat can be after making this hot and sour soup.
Cook’s Note
- Vinegar and pepper powder should be added just before turning off the fire because the vinegar might be volatilized after a long time of cooking and thus reduce the taste.
- Dark soy sauce is used to darken the color and it is optional if you want to create a big contrast between the appearance and flavor.
- Do not add too much salt at the very beginning. Light soy sauce contains lots of salt. And you can slightly add more salt after the soup is finished based on personal preference. But too much salt at firstly is a real disaster.
- This soup is actually quite easy and enjoyable. Drizzling some sesame oil at the very end can add some naughty flavors and also make the soup more shinning.
What to serve with hot and sour soup
Hot and sour soup is widely served as breakfast, partnered with scallion pancakes, buns, and other options for Chinese breakfast.
Hot and Sour Soup
Ingredients
- 3 dried shiitake mushrooms , soaked in hot water and thinly sliced
- 1/4 cup dried wood ear mushrooms , soaked in hot water and shredded
- 50 g pork shreds
- 4 bamboo shoots , finely shredded
- 1/3 carrot , shredded
- 1 thumb ginger , shredded
- 2 tsp. fresh ground white pepper powder
- 5 cups unsalted chicken stock
- 50g soft tofu
- 2 tbsp. light soy sauce , or soy sauce
- 1 tsp. dark soy sauce
- 1 tsp. salt or to taste
- 1/2 tbsp. sugar
- 1 large egg , whisked
- 3 tbsp. black vinegar
- sesame oil for drizzling
- chopped green onion and coriander
Pork marinating
- 2 tsp. light soy sauce
- 1/4 tsp. sugar
- 1 tsp. starch
- 1/4 tsp. salt
Starch water
- 3 tbsp. cornstarch or other starch
- 3 tbsp. water
Instructions
- Prepare the pork, marinate pork shreds with light soy sauce, sugar, salt and cornstarch. Mix well.
- In a wok, add carrots, bamboo shoots, wood ear mushroom, shiitake mushroom and ginger shreds. Add chicken stock, bring to a boiling and then simmer for 15 minutes.
- Add light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, sugar, and salt. Continue cooking for 2 minutes.
- Then place shredded tofu in. Then place pork shreds in and gently stir by chopstick when the content boils again.
- Stir the starch water once and then place the starch water in the soup. Heat to thicken.
- Drizzle egg liquid in. If you want smaller flowers, stirring at a faster speed. Or for larger flowers, stir roughly.
- Place black vinegar and white ground pepper in. Turn off fire immediately.
- Add some extra aroma by placing chopped green onion and coriander. Drizzle some sesame oil and serve hot.
Video
Nutrition
This is by far the best hot & sour soup recipe that I’ve tried. Thank you so much for the opportunity to make it. I substituted chicken for the pork and don’t think it made any difference.
Can’t wait to make it for friends…
Thanks again.
Thank you, Dan for this wonderful feedback.
Great recipe. Better than the restaurants in my area! I add a little extra black (Zhejiang) vinegar to my bowl when I serve it. I like it super sour!
Thank you Kirs. Love to know you like it. Where are you based on? In A
I love hot and sour soup but I don’t typically have black vinegar. Can I use regular vinegar in place? I really don’t want to buy a bottle of black vinegar if I don’t use it much.
Yes, you could replace with regular vinegar
Which ingredients can I use instead of black vinegar? Thank you.
Mady, you can use balsamic Vinegar.
A little different from what I’ve been used to (North American Chinese food) but delicious, actually better. I had mushroom flavored dark soy sauce. I omitted the salt as I used “better than bouillon” for the broth. I fried a pork chop for the meat. Used firm tofu as this is what I had. Turned out I had the black vinegar which is indeed close to a balsamic vinegar.
I will make this again; thank you for the recipe!
Hello, Heidi
Thanks so much for such a lovely comment. How do you feel about mushroom flavored dark soy sauce with this soup?
Hi, Elaine
Thank you fo the recipe! It’s really good and we like this soup very much. Could you write, please, how it will be in characters?
Dried shiitake (冬菇）are not ‘better’ than fresh (香菇). They’re just different.