Last updated on July 8th, 2018 at 12:46 pm
Thai Tom Yum Soup (Thai Hot and Sour Soup) is one of the easiest and quickest soups to make. The full flavored broth is infused with lemongrass, ginger and Thai chiles. Plump Shrimp, straw mushrooms and fresh cilantro complete this delicious and warming Tom Yum Soup recipe.
Instead of going out to a restaurant, you can make the most popular Thai soup at home in no time. This Thai Tom Yum Soup will knock-your-socks-off! It’s light. It’s easy. It’s healthy. It’s gluten free. It’s flavorful and if you want, you can make it spicy enough to clear out your sinuses (guaranteed!).
What is Tom Yum Soup?
- Tom Yum is a type of Hot and Sour soup that originated in Thailand. Commonly made with shrimp, it can also be made with chicken, noodles or even vegetarian.
How To Make Tom Yum Soup
This soup is a breeze to make – which makes you wonder how can you develop so much flavor with such a few ingredients in such little time?
It all starts with the broth! A good chicken broth like this Basic Chicken Stock or shrimp broth are always a plus. However, feel free to use canned chicken broth or seafood broth. We are going to infused the broth with lemongrass, ginger, lime leaves and Thai chile peppers. Transforming a basic broth into a flavor packed Thai broth!
Authentic Thai soup uses galangal – a root similar to ginger. However, galangal is very hard to find in my neck of the woods so I always use ginger with amazing results.
After a quick simmer, the rest of the ingredients are added. It only takes a few extra minutes and the soup is done! Garnish it with fresh cilantro and serve.
This Thai Tom Yum Soup is also delicious with some of these additions:
- Add Soba Noodles for a heartier soup. Cook the noodles according to package instructions (it usually takes 5 minutes), drain, rinse and place in a soup bowl. Pour the soup over the noodles and enjoy!
- Tomato cut into quarters. Add them at the same time you add the mushrooms.
- Sliced onions. Add them at the same time you add the mushrooms.
- Instead of straw mushrooms, you can add sliced Shiitake or white button mushrooms.
- Sliced scallions. Add them with the cilantro.
Kathy’s Notes
- Heads up – fish sauce does not smell good! Do not let that stop you from making this soup or any Asian dish.
- If you cannot find Thai chiles, you can use chile de arbol or jalapenos.
- Remove the shrimp tails for easier slurping!
- If you love Thai and Asian food in general, check out theses delicious recipes:
Satay with Spicy Peanut Sauce
Thai Red Curry Chicken with Vegetables
Jasmine Rice with Ginger and Lemongrass - The complete name of this soup is Tom Yum Goon!
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Thai Tom Yum Soup (Thai Hot and Sour Soup)
Ingredients
- 2 quarts chicken or seafood stock
- 2 stalks fresh lemongrass, sliced in 2 inch pieces
- 5 kaffir lime leaves
- 1 inch piece fresh ginger, sliced
- 2 red chiles (whole or sliced) see notes
- 6 tablespoons fish sauce
- 6 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice
- 2 teaspoons brown sugar
- 1 - 2 tablespoons red curry paste
- 1 (15-ounces) can straw mushrooms
- 1 pound large shrimp, peeled, deveined with tails on
- A handful of fresh cilantro, roughly chopped
Instructions
To Make the Thai Broth
- In a medium pot, bring the stock to a boil over medium heat. Add the lemongrass, lime leaves, ginger and red chile peppers and lower the heat to medium-low. Cover the pot an simmer for 20 minutes.
To Make the Soup
- Uncover the pot and add the fish sauce, lime juice, brown sugar and red curry paste to the broth. Stir and simmer for 5 minutes.
- Add the mushrooms and the shrimp and cook for 6 to 8 minutes or until the shrimp is cooked through. Turn the heat off and add the cilantro. Serve (see notes).
Notes
- When making the Thai broth, I usually add the chiles whole so I can control the heat level better.
- The lemongrass and lime leaves are not to be eaten. You can remove them before serving if you wish.
- Red Curry paste is spicy. If you are not familiar with it, add 1 tablespoon and taste. You can add more if desire.
Nutrition
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Things You May Need
Stock Pot with Cover
Thai Fish Sauce
LOL! I know fish sauce doesn’t smell good — but it’s amazing the depth of flavor it lends to so many dishes. This soup looks outstanding. Light and flavorful — I definitely want to give it a try!
Hehehe! sometimes I hold my breath so I don’t smell it! Definitely a must make soup!
I love steaming a pot full of brown jasmine sticky rice and sprinkling it wirh fish sauce. It’s a wonderful mid day meal for us weight conscious people.
I know it is so good and stinky!! LOL
This would be such a warming variation on my classic dinner rotation!
Thank you!! It is so easy to make!
One of my favorite Thai soups! Glad I can make it at home. Thanks for the recipe.
I made this soup and it was excellent. The instructions are clear and easy to follow. We found all the ingredients at Albertsons which was great.
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Muchas gracias y bienvenida!
I love this recipe!!! I recently moved to an area where I cannot get anything close to an authentic Tom Yum. Gave this a try and it’s amazing!!! II can cook and figured I would have to make changes to achieve the flavor I was looking for, not the case! I made a few modifications (added more fresh chili’s along with dried, I love spicy and used two types of mushrooms). I did also add the cilantro and green onions at the end. I will absolutely be adding this to my regular rotation 😋 Thank you so much for this spot on recipe!
Thank you for the feedback! I am so glad you liked it. We love this soup so much. It is super tasty and easy to make. Thanks again!!!!
I wish I could give this recipe a million stars. This is one of the best Thai soups I’ve ever had (and I lived in Thailand for 4 years). Authentic taste and easy. Very flavorful. Right balance of ingredients. This is a winner.
This is the best Tom Yum soup. We’ve been making it quite often because of the ease and taste.
Thank you so much!
Fantastic! Very flavorful and easy to make. I used lemongrass paste because I couldn’t find fresh. That’s the only change I made.
Thank you! Lemongrass paste works for sure!!
Made it – Love it – We will make it again! I love the simplicity of it. Thank you for sharing!
Note: the only unintended change I made was to the keffir leaves. Due to to the stores not having ANY – I bought three keffir limes. I did not know How it would convert. The produce guy said “its really strong – stronger than the leaves, just use the zest”. Now I know that was not entirely accurate because it was not really noticeable in taste but the smell was. Next time, I will be better prepared…
Thank you again!
So happy to hear! Thanks for sharing!!!
Looking at making this with chicken? Could I just add the breast and let simmer with all other ingredients and just shred at the end?
I would slice the breast very thinly and add it to the broth and let it simmer until cooked through.
Perfect. Exactly like the best Thai restaurants. I used Sozairyoku dashi as “seafood stock” and splurged on the $7 bottle of fish sauce. I used oyster mushrooms which definitely don’t have the same sliminess of straw mushrooms, but the taste was good. Next time I think I will double the shrimp and put two cans straw mushrooms.
So glad to hear you love it! Yes, it is definitely a restaurant quality recipe! Thank you so much for the feedback!