Homemade Vietnamese Canh Chua Hot and Sour Soup

I recently went to my favourite Vietnamese restaurant and asked them what they would recommend for me. It turns out it was Hot and Sour Soup. Thinking they were nuts, I ordered it anyway, and it’s nothing like Chinese Hot and Sour Soup. I guess I liked it even more than the Chinese style Soup. I made my version with some Rice Vermicelli in it as it was a dinner and it was delicious!

Ingredients: makes 4 bowls
1 tbsp chili flakes
2 cloves garlic
1/4 cup fish sauce
1 stalk lemon grass
4 chicken thighs (diced)
shiitake mushrooms
1 tomato diced
half can diced pineapple
1 stalk celery
bean sprouts (I forgot to purchase some, so my recipe doesn’t have any)

To make this soup, it’s actually easier than I would’ve imagined. Well, I took my own shortcuts as I don’t want to spend a ton of time cooking after work. But, you start with a bit of oil and toast the chili flakes and garlic. When it’s fragrant, pour some fish sauce into the pan and let it cook out a little bit on medium heat.

After it cooks up, add some broth or just water is fine and bring it up to a boil with some lemon grass. I actually put some of the pineapple juice in at this time as well when I made mine. I love pineapples, so I didn’t mind it being a bit sweeter than usual.

Once it’s boiling, I turned down the heat and added the chicken and let it cook thoroughly. I made sure it cooked through at this point, but I’m sure it would have been cooked completely by the time the vegetables were done if you cooked it only to it’s half way point at this step.

Now as it’s cooking away, chop up the vegetables and then throw it into the soup and let it cook until it’s tender crisp. In the restaurant they used some bean sprouts which I forgot to purchase, and I think it’s better with it. So, if you’re making this, buy some!

When it’s ready, I just tasted it to season to my liking with salt, honey and some sriracha and adjusted it. I added some rice vermicelli to mine, so I just softened it in some boiling water on the side, and place it in the bottle of my serving bowl. Then, I just ladled the soup on top and it was good to go! A perfect dinner for a cold night!

I really enjoyed this soup. I’ll keep modifying from this weird but basic recipe I made. Some people put lime, thai chilies and basil leaves in their soup and other herbs, so I’m sure it’ll be fun to modify!