Hot and Sour Soup Recipe

Hot and sour soup, that beloved Chinese restaurant staple, is quick and easy to make at home. This recipe gives you a rich, silky broth, packed with flavor and lots of goodies: tender strips of pork and shiitake, crunchy wood ear mushrooms and bamboo shoots, slippery slivers of tofu, and delicate ribbons of egg. The soup is thickened just enough—none of the dreaded gloppiness that too often plagues restaurant renditions.

White pepper lends the soup its trademark “hot,” a mellow, belly-warming kind of heat, while dark Chinkiang vinegar gives it the “sour,” a bright and bracing punch. White pepper is a must in any Chinese kitchen; black pepper, on the other hand, is rarely used. Chinkiang vinegar, fermented from black glutinous rice, is another common ingredient. These key seasonings are added at the end of the cooking process because if they’re added too early, they’ll lose their precious aromas.

Warming and full of lively flavors, hot and sour soup is perfect for chasing away the winter chill or fighting off a cold. And according to traditional Chinese medicine, it’ll give you a beauty boost, too: wood ear mushrooms are considered to be a “beauty food,” as they promote blood circulation and nourish the skin.

For this recipe, you’ll need to plan ahead a couple of hours to rehydrate the dried mushrooms. After that, though, the soup takes just 15 minutes to come together—even faster and much tastier than takeout.

Hot and Sour Soup Recipe

Serves: 4 to 6
Rest time: 2 hours to overnight
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 15 minutes

For the mushrooms:
6 dried shiitake mushrooms
1 tablespoon dried wood ear mushrooms
Water for soaking

For the pork:
3 ounces pork loin, cut into thin strips
Pinch of salt
Pinch of white pepper
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon water

For the soup:
1 tablespoon soy sauce
Pinch of salt
Pinch of sugar
3 1/2 tablespoons Chinkiang vinegar
1 teaspoon white pepper
1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil
6 cups chicken stock
1/4 carrot, julienned
1/3 cup canned bamboo shoots (sold in Chinese supermarkets)
3 thin slices ginger, julienned (about 1/2 teaspoon)
1/3 block soft tofu, julienned
3 tablespoons cornstarch
3 tablespoons water
2 eggs, beaten
3 scallions, finely chopped, for garnish

Hot and Sour Soup Instructions

1. Rehydrate the mushrooms

• In separate bowls, rehydrate the dried shiitake mushrooms in 1/2 cup water for 2 hours or up to overnight, and the dried wood ear mushrooms in water for 1–2 hours (do not soak wood ear longer than 2 hours to prevent harmful bacteria).
• Drain, reserving the soaking water from the shiitake mushrooms for later use. Rinse the shiitake and wood ear mushrooms well and slice thinly.

2. Prepare the pork

• In a bowl, combine salt, white pepper, soy sauce, cornstarch, and water. Add the pork strips and mix well. Marinate for 10 minutes.

3. Make the first and second sauces

• In a small bowl, make the first sauce: mix together soy sauce, salt, and sugar.
• In another small bowl, make the second sauce: mix together Chinkiang vinegar, white pepper, dark soy sauce, and sesame oil.

4. Start the soup base

• In a pot over high heat, add chicken stock and reserved shiitake soaking water. Bring to a boil and add the first sauce, stirring well.

5. Cook the pork

• Add the marinated pork, breaking up the pieces quickly with chopsticks. Cook over high heat for 5 minutes. Skim off any foam from the surface.

6. Add vegetables and tofu

• Add shiitake mushrooms, wood ear mushrooms, carrot, bamboo shoots, and ginger. Cook over high heat for 3 minutes until softened.
• Add tofu and stir carefully. Cook for another 2 minutes.

7. Thicken the soup

• Mix cornstarch and water to make a slurry. Slowly pour in half of the slurry, stirring quickly. Continue adding in small amounts until desired consistency is reached.

8. Finish with seasonings

• Pour in the second sauce. This is added last to preserve the vinegar’s aroma and keep the soup’s color vibrant.
• Bring the soup to a boil.

9. Add the eggs and garnish

• Slowly pour in beaten eggs in a circular motion, stirring gently with chopsticks to create ribbons.
• Garnish with chopped scallions and serve hot.

Tips & notes

• Limit wood ear soaking time: Do not soak wood ear mushrooms for more than 2 hours to avoid bacterial growth.
• Add vinegar and soy sauce last: Adding vinegar and dark soy sauce at the end keeps flavors fresh and the soup’s color rich.
• Adjust soup thickness: Control the thickness by adjusting how much cornstarch slurry you add.
• Substitute proteins if desired: You can replace pork with chicken, seafood, or omit the meat entirely for a vegetarian version.