Vegetable Hot and Sour Soup

About the Recipe

Every ingredient in this soup is available at a regular grocery store, nothing niche or hard to find. The corn flour, soy sauce, vinegar, and chilli sauce are pantry staples in most Indian kitchens. From start to finish, the soup takes about twenty minutes, including chopping time if your vegetables are already prepped. I make this on weeknights when I want something hot and filling without cooking an entire meal. It works well as a starter before fried rice or noodles, or on its own with some toast on the side.

Why you will love this recipe

Twenty minutes from cold pan to hot bowl is a genuine reason to keep this recipe in rotation. The corn flour does something useful here. It gives the broth a slightly thick, coating consistency that makes each spoonful feel more satisfying than a clear soup would. The vinegar cuts through the richness of the butter, and the black pepper adds a slow warmth that builds as you eat.

I also like how the spring onions hold their texture even after a quick saute, adding a faint crunch against the soft vegetables. This is the kind of soup that makes a weeknight feel a little more looked after.

Cooking Tips

The most common mistake is adding too much corn flour, which makes the soup gluey rather than silky. Stick to one and a quarter tablespoons and dissolve it in a small amount of cold stock before adding it to the pan, that way it does not clump. Another thing that goes wrong is oversauteing the vegetables. Two to three minutes is enough on medium heat.

If you cook them longer, they go soft and the soup loses any texture. Taste before adding salt because soy sauce already brings a lot of sodium.

Top Tips

• Chop the vegetables small and evenly, roughly half a centimetre, so they cook through in the short saute time without any piece staying raw in the middle.
• If your vegetable stock is mild or store bought, add an extra pinch of pepper and a small splash of vinegar at the end to sharpen the flavour.
• Do not skip the butter. Oil works technically, but butter gives the base a slightly richer smell as it heats, which carries through to the finished soup.
• Spring onion greens are for garnish, whites are for cooking. Separate them before you start so you are not fishing through the bowl later.
• Serve immediately. The corn flour thickening sets further as the soup sits and it becomes denser than you want after ten minutes.

Serving and Storing Suggestions

This recipe serves three to four people as a starter, or two as a light main. Prep time is around ten minutes and cooking takes another ten. Serve it hot, straight from the pan, in warmed bowls if possible. Leftovers can be stored in the refrigerator for up to two days in a covered container. When reheating, add two to three tablespoons of water or stock to thin it back out, because the corn flour continues to thicken as it cools.

Similar Recipes

• Sweet Corn Vegetable Soup
• Manchow Soup
• Tomato Coriander Soup
• Lemon Coriander Soup
• Egg Drop Soup

Nutrient Benefits

Mixed vegetables like carrots, beans, cabbage, and peas bring a useful range of vitamins, particularly vitamin C from cabbage and beta carotene from carrots. Because the vegetables are sauteed briefly and then simmered in stock rather than boiled for a long time, they retain more of their nutrients than they would in a longer-cooking preparation. The soup is relatively low in calories while still providing enough fibre from the vegetables to feel filling.