Thai Hot and Sour Prawn Soup

5 from 2 votes

Thai Hot and Sour Prawn Soup also known as Tom Yum Goong is a fragrant, spicy and sour soup flavor explosion made with authentic Thai ingredients.

Prep Time10

Cook Time15

Total Time25

Course: Mains, Sides

Cuisine: Thai

Servings:

Calories: 150kcal

Author: HWC Magazine

Ingredients

3 cups chicken stock
3 stalks lemon grass
(crushed with the back of your knife)
6 slices galangal
(Thai ginger)
4 kaffir limes leaves torn in half – remove stem
1-3 chilies
fresh or dried (crushed if you want them hot)
2 tomatoes cut into quarters
4 oz mushrooms
shimeji (or mushrooms of choice)
1 shallot shallot
cut into quarters
2 tablespoon fish sauce
2 teaspoon brown sugar
or sugar alternative of choice
8-10 prawns peeled and deveined (can substitute large shrimp, seafood, tofu, or even chicken if you wish)
3 teaspoon lime juice
2 tablespoon cilantro (coriander) for garnish - optional

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Boil the chicken stock in a pot, add lemon grass, galangal, kaffir lime leaves and chilies, cook until boiling.
Reduce heat to a simmer.
Add crushed tomatoes, mushrooms and shallot in the pot with a gentle stir. Wait for a few minutes until everything is cooked.
Season with fish sauce and sugar. Bring soup back up to a boil. Add prawns and lime juice. Turn off heat. Let sit for 10 minutes. The heat of the broth will cook the shrimp. (your shrimp should no longer be translucent, be bright pink and white and look like the letter C) Taste and adjust for your liking. If you want it sourer, add more lime juice. Saltier add more fish sauce. Sweet add more brown sugar or sugar alternative.
Sprinkle with cilantro (coriander) and its ready to serve. Enjoy!

Notes

You can make substitutions as needed.

Feel free to use seafood or vegetable stock instead of chicken stock.

If you can’t find fresh lemongrass there is the squeeze bottle brand in the refrigerated section of many stores.

You can use dried whole galangal instead of fresh. In a pinch, you can swap out fresh galangal with fresh ginger but please note that it is a very different flavor profile. Ginger is a warming and galangal is a cooling. Remember, if you decide to add in dried ground ginger, it is very strong. Start out at only ½ teaspoon and increase as desired.

If you cannot find kaffir lime leaves, substitute with 1 heaping teaspoon of lime zest to be added only right before serving.

If you can’t find Thai bird chilis feel free to use a chili of choice and adjust for your desired heat level.

Our family is “anti-tomato” so we crush upon addition to the soup. However, it is more traditional to add just quartered slices.

If you have a gluten allergy, there are many gluten free fish sauces on the market.

If you want to make this recipe LOW CARB, exchange brown sugar with a sugar alternative of choice.

Nutrition