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Vietnamese Sour Soup
Ginger and Scotch

Vietnamese Sweet and Sour Soup

5 from 3 votes
This is a simplified but still flavorful version of my mom's Vietnamese Sweet and Sour soup and can be ready in under 30 minutes. Pineapple is used to sweeten the broth and lemons are used for the sour element. Easy and fast to prepare.
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Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Total Time 25 minutes
Servings: 4 -6
Course: Soup
Cuisine: Vietnamese
Calories: 233
Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients
  

  • 2 quarts water or chicken stock*
  • 1 large tomato (quartered)
  • juice from 16 oz can pineapple and 3 pineapple rings cut into chunks
  • 6-8 large shrimp *peeled and deveined)
  • 3 Tablespoons lemon juice (about half a lemon)
  • 2 Tablespoons sugar
  • 5 Tablespoons Vietnamese or Thai fish sauce (aka nuoc mam)
  • handful of okra
  • handful of bean sprouts
  • 2 large leaves of culantro (aka recao or ngo gai) whole or halved (optional)
  • salt , to taste
  • hot pepper (1 teaspoon sambal or 1 whole thai bird chili), optional
  • scallions and cilantro for garnish

Method
 

  1. Bring water or chicken stock* to a boil.
  2. Add tomato, pineapple juice and pineapple chunks and reduce heat to simmer for 5 minutes.
  3. Add shrimp, optional chili, lemon, sugar, and fish sauce and simmer 3-5 minutes or until shrimp is cooked.
  4. Add okra, bean sprouts and recao. Cover and remove from heat. Let stand 5 minutes.
  5. Salt to taste and garnish with scallions and cilantro.

Notes

*I don't like the taste of commercial chicken stock nor chicken stock cubes and I find that simmering 4 chicken drumsticks (preferable de-skinned) for about 20 minutes before adding the rest of the ingredients will make a much more flavorful soup than just using water. Just remove the chicken when the soup is ready to be served or debone it and add the meat back into the soup.
1. Other ingredients that I sometimes add are salmon fillets and diced soft tofu. I throw them in at the last 10 minutes of cooking.
2. This soup is great on its own but it is also traditionally served over white rice or over rice noodles for a complete meal.