Asian restaurant standard in vegan form. This soup is a staple at KZSU barbecues and is guaranteed to draw large audiences to any potlatch. You can add any leftover peas and peppers to this soup. If you want to preserve their crunch, add near the end.
| Prep Time: | 45 mins |
| Cook Time: | 15 mins |
| Total Time: | 1 hr |
| Servings: | 4 |
| Yield: | 4 servings |
Ingredients
- 1 ounce dried wood ear mushrooms
- 4 dried shiitake mushrooms
- 12 dried tiger lily buds
- 2 cups hot water
- ⅓ ounce bamboo fungus
- 3 tablespoons soy sauce
- 5 tablespoons rice vinegar
- ¼ cup cornstarch
- 1 (8 ounce) container firm tofu, cut into 1/4 inch strips
- 1 quart vegetable broth
- ¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- ¾ teaspoon ground white pepper
- ½ tablespoon chili oil
- ½ tablespoon sesame oil
- 1 green onion, sliced
- 1 cup Chinese dried mushrooms
Instructions
- In a small bowl, place wood mushrooms, shiitake mushrooms, and lily buds in 1 1/2 cups hot water. Soak 20 minutes, until rehydrated. Drain, reserving liquid. Trim stems from the mushrooms, and cut into thin strips. Cut the lily buds in half.
- In a separate small bowl, soak bamboo fungus in 1/4 cup lightly salted hot water. Soak about 20 minutes, until rehydrated. Drain, and mince.
- In a third small bowl, blend soy sauce, rice vinegar, and 1 tablespoon cornstarch. Place 1/2 the tofu strips into the mixture.
- In a medium saucepan, mix the reserved mushroom and lily bud liquid with the vegetable broth. Bring to a boil, and stir in the wood mushrooms, shiitake mushrooms, and lily buds. Reduce heat, and simmer 3 to 5 minutes. Season with red pepper, black pepper, and white pepper.
- In a small bowl, mix remaining cornstarch and remaining water. Stir into the broth mixture until thickened.
- Mix soy sauce mixture and remaining tofu strips into the saucepan. Return to boil, and stir in the bamboo fungus, chili oil, and sesame oil. Garnish with green onion to serve.
Reviews
Hey Could I skip the Bamboo Fungus and tiger lily buds? I don’t know where to buy them
Very good! Like at least one other reviewer, I kinda threw everything into the pot, some stuff recipe called for & lots it didn’t (made it VERY veg heavy, full meal style as I’m feeling beginnings of a cold). I figure the broth is the most exacting part of the soup anyway, and this recipe didn’t disappoint. Feel better already after just a few spoonfuls -bingo! I predict non-vegan hubby will like it as well. If not, more for me! Thanks for great recipe!
I only added canned mushrooms, sliced bamboo shoots and tofu but this was still super yummy. I love this recipe and will make again.
Hot and Sour Soup has always been a “as you like it” style soup. I added an extra 1TBL rice vinegar to my recipe and this is a prime vegan recipe!
used portobello and shiitake mushroom and skipped the lily buds. For the pork i used a pork chip thinly sliced instead of ground pork.
This was excellent! I went to an Asian grocery so I had all the items except I used one type of dried mushrooms and white wine vinegar for rice vinegar. I also added bean sprouts and peapods. My daughter had never had hot & sour soup, ate about theee bowls. It was healthy and delicious. And I have enough bamboo fungus to make many more batches.
Quick, easy, forgiving recipe that tastes much better than the soup served in restaurants. I made this soup 2 days ago and my boyfriend has talked about it several times since. He thought it was a hearty soup loaded with beef and chicken. He was shocked to learn it was a bunch of fungus without any meat lol This recipe was a huge hit and I will definitely be making this often. Thanks for a great recipe!
This is a great basic recipe. I add a tablespoon of hot and sour soup paste for additional punch. As I like my hot and sour soup thick and heavy on fillers, I added a touch more corn starch and doubled up on all mushrooms, fungus and tofu.
I tried this after having it at an Asian restaurant. The base is right on although (personally) I may cut back on the red pepper next time. My grocery store carried packages of exotic mushroom blend and I used that instead of the dried mushrooms/fungi called for. I will definitely make this again and would serve to guests.
Better than restaurant soup! The only change I made was to omit the bamboo fungus as I did not have any. You can be sure I will be making this again. Soon.
I followed the recipe pretty closely and found that in the end I didn’t need to adjust really anything, which surprised me as i am always altering recipes. I shared this with a group of foodie friends and every single person loved it. I didn’t plan ahead so i couldn’t get ahold of the bamboo fungus, aka: long net stinkhorn/veiled lady. It is a mushroom, so bamboo shoots don’t replace it but do make a nice addition regardless. Here is what i did change: I substituted a carton of fresh shitake mushrooms for the “1 cup chinese dried mushrooms”; a whole bag of dried shitake rather than the 4, I added only the cornstrach that was called for saturating the tofu (so I used only one tablespoon total) I added a whole bunch of green onions rather than the one lonely onion; i added half a small can of bamboo shoots and some bean sprouts to make it more of a meal. And finally most importantly I added agave to balance out the hot salty spiciness of the soup, it also made it taste more like resturant style. I didn’t measure it out but I added it slowly at the end and kept tasting it. Prob a tablespoon. Everything else in her ingredients i followed closely, but with a heavy hand. Don’t skip the lily buds/ lily flowers. I bought them dried at an international store. i cooked them seperately in a pot with prob two cups of water and boiled it down to about a cup. Add the water they cooked in. The flavor is kind of crazy. excellent.
waaaay too much spice for my kids. but delicious anyway.
The hardest thing about this was finding the ingredients, but SO well worth the search. This is a top rate recipe, with excellent results for an authentic taste experience. If not keeping it vegan, you can use chicken broth and stir in an egg at the end. I did add sliced bamboo shoots, but that was my only deviation to the recipe. About $15 in ingredients will make at least 6-8 batches of this lovely soup. No more take out quarts of hot and sour for me!
great! not quite like restaraunt hot and sour soup, and i had to add extra soy sauce, but pretty good(:
I have made this several times now and have made some definite adjustments for our tastes/budget. We do not have an asian store near us nor the budget for the high end mushrooms/fungus/lily buds. We just do a mix of baby portabello and regular white mushrooms approx. 2 cups sliced + 1 can of rinsed slivered bamboo shoots. The chili oil is way too hot at 1/2 tablespoon. 4-5 drops is plenty hot. We also omit the red pepper flakes and reduce the sesame oil to 1 teaspoon. I add 1 whipped egg to the soup at the end when it is boiling (although I know this changes it from vegan–you can leave it out). I add 2 Tbsp more cornstarch with 1 cup hot water as we like it thicker. My husband loves this soup and I make it once a week now. Thanks for the recipe!
Lovely soup. So good and takes less time to make than to shop for the ingredients! Fun trying something new.I will make this often.Thank-you!
Delicious! Followed recipe exactly (though it was not easy finding all ingredients and I live in Hong Kong!!!), with one excpetion. Left out white pepper, cuz husband doesn’t care for it. I think it would make an excellent soup even better, so will likely sprinkle some in when I eat the leftovers. “Bamboo fungus” was extremely difficult to find because clerks were very confused. Once I showed my colleagues the other reviewers translation (“long net stinkhorn”), they used a tool to translate to Chinese and I brought that to the store, so try that if you have trouble.
The flavor was very good. I had to adjust some of the ingredients to what I had and what I could find. Will definitly make again.
Awesome recipe! I love hot and sour soup but have had a hard time finding a recipe that matches the restaurant soup. I didn’t use the specified amount of mushrooms as it seemed excessive, and I adjusted the seasonings at the end to fit my taste. Very happy with the results.
Great recipe…I added fresh garlic,ginger,and smoked pepper cloves in place of the black pepper.
It tastes just like the restaurant version and the lady at the Asian market who assisted me told me this recipe is very traditional. The bamboo fungus is a MUST in this recipe and so is the white pepper. It does make all the difference. The bamboo fungus can be found in the dried mushroom section of the Asian market, because it’s really a type of mushroom. You can find all the ingredients for this recipe at your local Asian Pacific market with assistance from those that work there. Will become a staple in our home.