When I’m feeling nostalgic for the punchy, fragrant flavors I took for granted in Thailand, I make my tom yum soup recipe. Then I relive my lemongrass laced adventures in Southeast Asia sip by sip. Sour, pungent, acidic, hot and ready in just 30 minutes, start to finish!
When I make tom yum soup at home, I make sure to focus on the basics. For this sour Thai soup, I absolutely need lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves in my ingredients roster. Same goes for Thai fish sauce and fresh chilis. No substitutes for those essentials. And that’s because the basics make such a huge difference in a soup that effortlessly melds the perfect balance of hot, sour and salty. While there is some leeway with the other ingredients, the core never changes.
I got very spoiled by the preternaturally good food in Thailand. During the time I spent living and working in Bangkok, I was never far from an open air food stall specializing in wok fired drunken noodles or Thai basil chicken with a perfectly fried egg. And that’s one of the things I’ll always respect about those chefs who devote a lifetime to perfecting one or two dishes passed down throughout generations. If it means I can eat next-level Thai fried rice and tom yum soup everyday, I’ll turn up wherever their food cart happens to be.
Table of Contents
Ingredients
Scroll to the recipe card at the bottom of the page for the full recipe steps and measurements.
- Chicken Stock
- Kaffir Lime Leaves, Lemongrass and Thai Chilis. These are my aromatics and they deliver complex brightness and heat.
- Red Bell Peppers and Straw Mushrooms. I slice the sweet bell peppers into long, thin strips. When I have a tough time tracking straw mushrooms, I use sliced button mushrooms instead.
- Fish Sauce, Lemon Juice and Granulated Sugar. This combination brings a ton of sweet, sour and salty umami. Fish sauce is basically the table salt of Southeast Asia.
- Shrimp. I use large shelled and deveined shrimp – and I always add them last since they cook fairly quickly in the simmering broth.
Tom Yum Sauce
I cook garlic, shallots and sliced Thai chilis in a few tablespoons of oil until the garlic and shallots are browned. Then I blend the mixture with tiny dried shrimp, salt and sugar. The finished sauce comes out as a highly concentrated paste.
I add this mixture to the chicken broth for an even more punchy depth of flavor that compliments and contrasts the lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves in the best way.
Variations
When I mentioned above that there are no substitutes, I stand firm on the core flavor ingredients. But here’s where I see plenty of opportunity for a little leeway.
Swap proteins. I regularly switch out the fresh shrimp for sliced fried tofu.
Use veggie stock. Chicken stock is the best. But vegetable stock is fine too, since the other ingredients are so assertive and flavorful.
Use Thai shrimp paste. Instead of tiny dried shrimp in the soup base, I sometimes opt for kapi (when I can find it) – a readymade Thai fermented shrimp paste. Very salty and umami.
Serve over rice noodles. Tom yum noodle soup is glorious. When I make this, I always try to undercook the noodles since they’ll continue to cook in the hot soup after serving.
How To Make It
- Make the tom yum sauce in a small pot on the stovetop. Be sure to watch the garlic and shallots in particular. They burn quickly! Check the recipe card below for my timing suggestions.
- Blend the tom yum sauce with the dried ingredients until uniformly pasty.
- Make the soup. Start with the chicken stock and tom yum sauce – then add aromatics. Bring to a boil. Add the mushrooms and fresh shrimp last – careful not to overcook the shrimp in particular.
Expert Tip
Here’s how I handle the lemongrass. First I set the whole stalk on a cutting board atop a sturdy surface and bash it with the back of a chef’s knife a few times. This essentially breaks the tough exterior and unleashes the natural fragrance. I then chop it into a few smaller sections to make it easier to get into the soup pot. Since fresh lemongrass is super fibrous, I typically remove it before serving the soup. But here’s the exception to that rule: when my lemongrass is super fresh and tender, I’ll finely chop just the bottom quarter of the stem and simmer it in the broth along with the longer sections. Then I’ll remove the longer fibrous sections – but serve the tender and finely chopped lemongrass in the finished soup.
What I Serve With Tom Yum Soup
Tom yum is the quintessential Thai starter. And that means it goes with just about everything. Here are a few of my favorite Thai recipes that pair with tom yum goong.
- Pad Woon Sen – Thai Glass Noodle Stir Fry
- Panang Curry
- Satay With Thai Peanut Sauce
- Vegetable Pad See Ew
- Red Curry Chicken
Other Thai recipes: pad Thai, tom kha, green curry vegetables, mango sticky rice, jungle curry, ginger shrimp, Thai iced tea, curry noodle soup, yellow curry, sticky rice
Storage and Reheating
Store leftover soup in the refrigerator (covered) for up to 2 days.* Reheat leftovers in the microwave – or in a soup pot on the stovetop – until piping hot.
*That said, the shrimp and bell peppers tend to get fairly waterlogged when kept in the fridge. Tom yum soup definitely tastes best fresh out of the pot as soon as it’s made.
Frequently Asked Questions
The garlic and shallots can go from perfectly browned to charcoal in the blink of an eye. It’s for that reason that I remove those elements from the burner as soon as I start to see browning. Place it in a bowl and allow it to cool on the countertop before blending.
It probably sat in the soup for too long on the stovetop. Medium to large shrimp only need to be simmered around two to three minutes before they’re good to go. And they’ll continue to cook in the hot soup after being placed in serving bowls.
The garlic and shallots develop deep flavor when they’re cooked separately in oil. And the shrimp will certainly overcook if added at the beginning.
While it’s possible, I don’t recommend it. The dried shrimp and fish sauce alone deliver so much depth of flavor to tom yum soup. You could always use veggie broth and swap the fresh shrimp for tofu, but it’s still a pescatarian dish with the fish sauce and dried shrimp. If you’re after a vegan Asian soup, try my bok choy soup instead.
Did you like this recipe? Are there changes you made that you would like to share? Share your tips and recommendations in the comment section below!
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Tom Yum Soup
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 4 1x
- Category: Soup
- Method: Boiling
- Cuisine: Thai
- Diet: Low Calorie
Description
My tom yum soup has all the punchy Southeast Asian flavor of the authentic version in Thailand: Sour, pungent, acidic and hot.
Ingredients
- 4 1/2 cups chicken stock
- 2 tablespoons tom yum sauce (recipe below)
- 4 kaffir lime leaves, finely chopped
- 1 4-inch piece lemongrass, roughly chopped
- 6 tablespoons lemon juice
- 6 tablespoons fish sauce
- 1 1/2 cup red bell pepper, finely sliced
- 3 or 4 fresh Thai chilis, roughly chopped
- 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
- 16 straw mushrooms, roughly chopped, or 8 button mushrooms
- 8 large shrimp, shelled and deveined
- lemon wedges, for garnish
Tom Yum Sauce
- 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 4 cloves garlic, sliced in half
- 4 shallots, roughly chopped
- 2 Thai chilis, roughly chopped
- 2 teaspoons granulated sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 tablespoon ground dried shrimps
Instructions
- Make the tom yum sauce. In a small pot, add oil, garlic, shallots and chilies and cook until garlic and shallots are golden brown (3-4 minutes). Turn the heat off and let the mixture cool in a bowl on the countertop (don’t leave it in the pot as it will burn).
- Blend the cooled tom yum sauce with sugar, salt and dried shrimp. Blend until smooth and paste-like.
- Make the soup. In a large saucepan, heat the chicken stock with the tom yum sauce. Once almost boiling, add the lime leaves, lemongrass, lemon juice, fish sauce, chilies, and sugar, then bring to a boil and simmer for two minutes.
- Add mushrooms and shrimp. Stir in the mushrooms and shrimp and cook for a further two to three minutes, or until the shrimps are cooked through. Remove the lemongrass.
- Serve with fresh chiles and lemon wedges.
Notes
Tom yum soup is best enjoyed immediately. Save leftovers in a covered storage container and refrigerate for up to 2 days.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 bowl
- Calories: 263
- Sugar: 14.9g
- Sodium: 2730mg
- Fat: 7.7g
- Saturated Fat: 3.8g
- Unsaturated Fat: 1g
- Trans Fat: 0g
- Carbohydrates: 26g
- Fiber: 3.3g
- Protein: 25g
- Cholesterol: 99mg
