Tom Yum Goong | Hot and Sour Soup

Gluten-free | Sugar-free | Dairy-free 

Serves 3-4

Why it's delicious

Soup has a wonderful complexity as it has the ability to be a beverage and meal all at the same time. With such a unique selling proposition, this soup takes it one step further by being spicy but sour at the same time. 

Tom Yum Goong is a popular Thai soup that utilises the flavours of seafood, spice and tart to give us a robust and layered soup that works so well with a health-conscious diet. 

Helpful hints and tips

I use prawn (shrimp) tails and fish in my soup, but you could easily swap the seafood for chicken or turkey. 

Before you start, you’ll need to prepare my Kombu Water. Kombu water is my healthy broth alternative and one of my favourite foundation recipes. If you need the recipe, you can find it here.

To ensure this recipe stays sugar-free, you will need to make my Sugar-free Sweet Chilli Sauce. 

Beware, some people may experience gut inflammation by consuming chillies, so please be careful when adding chilli. 

Ground wakame It’s a great idea to buy a packet of wakame (dried seaweed) from the supermarket or Asian store and grind it until it's small enough to sprinkle. I used a coffee/spice grinder to grind mine, but you can also use a food processor, or you can chop furiously with a sharp knife until the seaweed is in small, fine pieces. 

Ingredients

• 1 litre (2 pints) Kombu Water
• 1 tbsp low sodium tamari
• 3-4 tsp good quality fish sauce, optional 
• Handful button mushrooms, thinly sliced
• 2 large shallots, peeled and thinly sliced
• 250 g (8.8 oz) raw green prawn (shrimp) tails, sliced
• 250 g (8.8 oz) firm fish fillets like ling, monk or salmon
• 2-3 tbsp Bridget's Sugar-free Sweet Chilli Sauce, to taste
• 2 tbsp freshly grated ginger
• 1 - 2 limes, juiced
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tbsp coriander stalks, thinly sliced
• 2 tbsp coriander leaves, thinly sliced
• 5 snow peas, thinly sliced
• 2 tsp ground wakame (see above)

Method

1. In a medium-sized pot, heat the kombu water,  tamari and fish sauce until nearly boiling. 
2. Add the mushrooms, shallots, prawns, fish, chilli sauce, ginger and lime juice and heat gently for 5 minutes or until the fish and prawns are just cooked through. 
3. Taste for flavour and add a grinding of the black pepper followed by the coriander stalks, and If needed, add a bit more chilli and lime juice until the soup is well flavoured. 
4. Serve the soup in deep bowls and garnish with the coriander leaves, snow peas and wakame.