Hot and Sour Soup
White pepper heat, Chinkiang sour, ribbons of egg, silky tofu.
Ingredients
- 1500 ml Chicken stock
- 200 g Firm tofu
- 15 g Dried shiitake
- 10 g Dried wood ear
- 100 g Bamboo shoots
- 2 Egg
- 4 tbsp Chinkiang black vinegar
- 2 tbsp Light soy sauce
- 1 tsp Dark soy sauce
- 2 tsp White pepper
- 3 tbsp Cornstarch
- 1 tsp Salt
- 100 g Pork loin (optional)
- 1 tbsp Toasted sesame oil (optional)
- 2 Scallions (optional)
Method
- Soak the shiitake and wood ear in hot water until plump and rehydrated.
- While the mushrooms soak, slice the pork, tofu, and bamboo shoots into matchsticks.
- Still during the soak, stir the cornstarch with a little cold water in a small bowl until smooth.
- Lift the rehydrated mushrooms and wood ear from the soaking water, keeping the liquor, and slice them thin.
- Combine the stock and the reserved mushroom soaking liquor in a saucepan and bring to a gentle simmer.
- Add the pork, sliced mushrooms, wood ear, bamboo, and tofu. Simmer until the pork is cooked through.
- While the soup simmers, beat the eggs lightly with a pinch of salt.
- Season the soup with the light soy, dark soy, black vinegar, and white pepper, tasting as you go.
- Stir the cornstarch slurry into the bubbling soup until it thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon.
- Turn off the heat. Drizzle the egg in a slow stream while stirring once around the pot so ribbons form.
- Ladle into bowls. Finish with the sesame oil and sliced scallions.
Tap “Start cooking” for live timers that flag what to get ahead on while something simmers.
About Hot and Sour Soup
Hot and sour soup, suan la tang, is a northern Chinese classic that balances two dominant sensations in its very name: heat from white pepper and sourness from Chinkiang black vinegar. Beyond that, it is prized for its texture, a whole catalog of it, thanks to slippery firm tofu, chewy wood ear, meaty rehydrated shiitake, crunchy bamboo shoots, and fine matchsticks of pork, all suspended in a broth thickened to a glossy body with cornstarch and finished with ribbons of egg swirled in at the end. The mushroom soaking liquor goes back into the pot, deepening the base.
Eaten hot, it is warming, tangy, and peppery, with the white pepper providing a slow-building heat that sits at the back of the throat rather than on the tongue. It is a soup of contrasts, sour and savory, silky and crunchy, and every spoonful brings a different combination. Traditionally it opens a meal or accompanies dumplings, though a bowl is filling enough to stand alone. Balancing the vinegar and pepper to taste at the end is what separates a good version from a flat one, so adjust both once everything is in the pot.
Hot and Sour Soup: frequently asked questions
How many calories are in Hot and Sour Soup?
A serving has about 324 calories — 20g protein, 33.3g carbs, 12.7g fat, 4.4g fiber. Figures are estimated from the ingredient amounts and will shift with your portions and brands.
Is Hot and Sour Soup gluten-free?
As written, no — it contains Light soy sauce, Dark soy sauce. You'd need a certified gluten-free swap for those ingredients to make it gluten-free.
How long does Hot and Sour Soup take to make?
About 30 minutes start to finish, but only around 24 of those are hands-on — the rest is largely unattended cooking time you can step away from. In the Homecooked app the timers and parallel steps are sequenced for you so the hands-on part feels even shorter.
Do I need every ingredient to make Hot and Sour Soup?
The core ingredients are essential, but you can leave out pork loin, toasted sesame oil, scallions — they're optional and mainly there for extra flavor or finish.
How many servings does Hot and Sour Soup make?
This recipe makes 4 servings. In the app you can scale it up or down and the ingredient amounts adjust automatically.