Tom Yum Goong (Hot and Sour Prawn Soup)

This soup isn't much to look at, am I right? It's mostly broth with a few prawns and mushrooms floating around in there. The thing is.... the flavor in this soup is ridiculous. It's probably the most flavorsome broth I've ever eaten. The only thing that I didn't enjoy was the heat. It is super spicy! I'm sure you could tone it down a little but everyone else seemed to really enjoy it so, apparently, I am just a big baby. 

The secret is in simmering the ingredients until everything is fragrant. It features the delightful lemongrass and lime juice essence that is prevalent in Thai food. Your taste buds won't know what hit them!

Tom Yum Goong

(Hot and Sour Prawn Soup)

Ingredients

8 cups chicken broth

3 Tbsp dried lemongrass (6 stalks fresh)

2 slices dried galanga (8 slices fresh)

4 dried kaffir lime leaves (6 fresh)

3 Tbsp fish sauce

2 Tbsp lime juice

2 tsp roasted chili paste

2 dried chili peppers (or 2 fresh)

2 cups straw mushrooms, halved (We used brown mushrooms, cut into slices)

~12 prawns, peeled, deveined

Directions

Bring chicken broth to a boil in a large pot. Add in lemongrass, galanga, and lime leaves and simmer on low for about 30 minutes. 

After the 30 minutes, stir in fish sauce, lime juice, chili paste, and chillies. Simmer another 30 minutes. Pour the broth through a strainer into another pot to remove the leaves and lemongrass.

You should have a beautiful golden broth. 

Place back over medium high heat and return to a simmer. Add in the mushrooms and simmer for about 3 - 5 minutes, until mushrooms are nearly done. 

Lastly, add in the prawns and cook until they are done - the prawns will be red/pink when they are done. Remove from heat and serve immediately. 

Sue used dried ingredients as that is what we had on hand. If you have access to fresh ingredients then, by all means, use them instead!

This soup was part of the Thai inspired dinner party we had a little while ago. To see the rest of the recipes we made at our Thai Dinner click HERE. 

We also used brown mushrooms instead of straw mushrooms as we live in a small town where some ingredients are just not available. Sue had to make some adjustments to the original recipe as it was given to our sister Orra during a cooking class she took while in Thailand and it was a single serving size. She took some liberties with the servings sizes so if you have to change a few things, not to worry!