Hot And Sour Soup Recipe | Food

Date Published:: 09/10/2007

This Nigella recipe is taken from her popular Channel 4 series Nigella Bites, based on her popular book How To Eat.

I know that for some people, nothing feels more restoring than something warm and unchallengingly bland. But when it's succour and sustenance I need, it's spice that I want.

This soup, tom yam-the culinary equivalent of Friar's Balsam, clears the tubes and brings fire to the jaded soul. And there's nothing like a bit of searing heat to push away any hungover seediness. It's good for those days when you're thick with cold, too.

It's easy to throw together, as well: the chicken stock I make out of boiling water and bouillon concentrate, and the tom yam paste is sold now at most supermarkets, along with the other ingredients, too.

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

1 1/2 litres chicken stock
2 heaped tablespoon tom yam paste
4 kaffir lime leaves, finely chopped
1 stick lemon grass, tender inner part only, roughly chopped
juice of 1 lime
4 tabsps fish sauce
3 small fresh red or green chillies, finely chopped
1 tsp sugar
150g straw or button mushrooms, halved or quartered according to size
500g peeled raw prawns, thawed if frozen
5 small spring onions, cut into short lengths and then into strips
small bunch coriander, chopped

Method: How to cook hot and sour soup

1.Heat the stock and tom yam paste in a decent sized saucepan with the lime leaves, lemon grass, lime-juice, fish sauce, chillies and sugar.

2.Bring to the boil, add the mushrooms and simmer for a couple of minutes, then add the prawns and spring onions and cook for a further 2-3 minutes, or until the prawns are cooked but still tender. Sprinkle with a little coriander and put more on the table for people to add themselves as they want.