Tom yum goong (Thai hot and sour prawn soup)
35 min · 25 g protein · 146 cals / serving
A clear, fiery broth perfumed with lemongrass, galangal and lime leaves, loaded with plump prawns, mushrooms and juicy tomatoes. It is sour from lime, salty from fish sauce and hot from fresh chili, all at once, and the cilantro on top makes it smell like a Bangkok street stall.
Ingredients
- 3 cups chicken broth, or shrimp stock
- 3 cups water
- 2 medium shallots, sliced
- 10 1/2 oz mushrooms, oyster, straw or button, halved
- 1 1/3 cups cherry tomatoes, halved
- 1 lb 2 oz shrimp, large, peeled and deveined, tails on
- 2–4 Thai chilies red chili peppers, lightly crushed
- 3 tbsp fish sauce
- 1 1/2 tsp granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup lime juice, about 2 limes
To serve
- 1 handful fresh cilantro, leaves and tender stems
- 2 green onions, sliced
Steps
- Bring the broth and water to a boil in a large pot with the shallots, plus the aromatics that flavour the soup but are not eaten: 2 stalks of lemongrass cut into 2 inch lengths and bruised with the back of a knife, 6 thin slices of galangal (or ginger) and 5 makrut lime leaves torn in half. Simmer 5 minutes so the broth smells strongly of citrus.
- Add the mushrooms, tomatoes and chilies and simmer 3 minutes.
- Add the prawns and simmer 2–3 minutes, just until they curl and turn pink and opaque all the way through (145°F). Take the pot off the heat straight away so they stay tender.
- Stir in the fish sauce, sugar and lime juice off the heat (boiling lime turns bitter). Taste: it should be sour first, then salty, then hot. Add more lime, fish sauce or chili to get there.
- Ladle into bowls and top with cilantro and green onion. Eat around the lemongrass, galangal and lime leaves.
Good to know
Where do I find galangal and lime leaves?
Asian grocers sell both fresh and frozen, and many supermarkets carry a jar or frozen pack of lemongrass, galangal and lime leaves together. They freeze perfectly, so buy a pack and keep it. Ginger stands in for galangal at a pinch; there is no real stand-in for the lime leaves.
Can I make it creamy?
The creamy version (tom yum nam khon) adds a splash of evaporated milk at the end. A quarter cup (60 ml) for the pot gives a soft, rounded broth without much richness.
Rice on the side?
In Thailand it is eaten with jasmine rice as a main. A small scoop on the side, spooned into the broth, turns it into a full dinner.
Alternative
Can't fill you up alone — pair it with protein.
Per
- Calories
- 24
- Protein
- (64%)
- 4 g
- Fat
- (7%)
- <1 g
- Carbohydrates
- (29%)
- 2 g
- of which sugar
- 1 g
- Fiber
- <1 g
- Sodium
- 272 mg
More meals
Computed from the ingredients with our published formula, not yet kitchen-tested. How
As written, 584 kcal goes into the pot and 2611 g of ingredients comes out as about 2400 g of food: 24 kcal per 100 g. Cooking moves water and energy density is the score's biggest lever, so the dish is scored as cooked, not as an average of its parts. Every ingredient links to its food page, with the same data and score. The label's percentages are each macronutrient's share of the calories. The full formula.