Vietnamese sweet and sour soup (canh chua) is an example of everything that is great about Vietnamese home cooking. It uses a variety of fresh vegetables and herbs to produce a soup of contrasting yet complementary textures and flavors.
Canh chua is a traditional Vietnamese home cooked soup that perfectly encompasses the delicate balance of sweet, sour, salty and spicy, all in one bowl. You can have this soup on its own to warm you up on a chilly day or have it with steamed rice and other side dishes for a heartier meal.
Related Post: The Guide to Cooking Perfectly Steamed Rice: Asian Kid Edition
There are many types of canh chua with different stock bases and assorted vegetables. For this recipe, I’m making canh chua with chicken stock, large tiger shrimp, pineapples, tomatoes and okra.
Since shrimps are added towards the end to prevent overcooking, they don’t provide much richness to the stock. Therefore, I like to use chicken stock to give the soup more body and flavor. In the recipe below, I simply used store-bought Swanson chicken broth. For the shrimp, I like mine whole with shell, head and tail on. Leaving the shrimp whole provides more flavor to the soup. The head fat also gives the soup a beautiful orange color. However, if you are not feeling whole shrimp and having food look back at you, you can use already prepped shrimp.
The most important ingredient of any canh chua recipe is tamarind pulp. It provides tartness to the soup that’s more fruity and complex than other souring agents like lime, lemon or vinegar. Get your hands on tamarind pulp for the best flavor. You can also use tamarind powder, and tamarind juice concentrate. Keep in mind that different forms of tamarind will have different levels of sourness, so adjust accordingly.
The other important ingredient to the soup is sugar. Sugar is used to balance the tartness of the tamarind. The pineapple provides a subtle sweetness but that few spoonfuls of sugar are absolutely necessary to canh chua.
Of course, canh chua is not complete without the aromatic fried garlic and Vietnamese herbs that top the soup. There are three main Vietnamese herbs used to garnish canh chua. Rice paddy herb (rau om), culantro (ngo gai) and Thai basil (rau que). Thai Basil is the easiest to find. It’s a lot more aromatic than regular basil. Culantro and rice paddy herbs are a lot harder to find unless you have a Vietnamese grocery store near you. They are lot more fragrant and are my go-to choice for all my canh chua recipes.
For canh chua recipes, avoid overcooking the vegetables. Vegetables are added towards the end of cooking to prevent it from turning into mush. However, vegetables just sitting in the soup will also go limp and dull. I’d recommend if you are not serving right away, make the stock and season it to your liking. Leave the vegetables out of the stock until ready to serve. Limped overcooked vegetables in canh chua really ruin the magic of the soup and simply look sad.
Complete the Meal
Sour soup is traditionally served with caramelized claypot catfish (Ca Kho).
Looking for something else? Try these other popular side dishes:
- Caramelized Pork Spare Ribs (Suon Khia or Suon Ram Man)
- Caramelized and Braised Pork Belly with Eggs (Thit Kho Tau)
- Ginger Chicken (Ga Kho Gung)
- Crispy Salt & Pepper Beef (Thit Bo Chien Muoi Tieu)
- Caramelized Shrimp (Tom Rim)
Vietnamese Sweet and Sour Shrimp Soup with Pineapple (Canh Chua Tom Nau Thom)
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: 3 1x
Description
A shrimp-based soup with a variety of fresh vegetables and herbs to produce contrasting yet complementary textures and flavors. Sweet, savory, sour, and spicy, this soup is the epitome of Vietnamese home cooking.
Ingredients
- 6 extra-large whole shrimp (head-on, tail-on)
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 4 garlic cloves
- 32 oz chicken broth (see notes)
- 30 grams tamarind pulp
- 2 teaspoons fish sauce
- 1 teaspoon MSG (optional)
- 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 5 oz okra
- 5 oz pineapple
- 1 large tomato
- 2 tablespoons minced rice paddy herbs, Thai basil, culantro or cilantro
- Thai chili pepper (optional)
Instructions
- Prepare the ingredients: Devein the shrimp by inserting a toothpick underneath the vein and between the shells. Pull up to remove. Give the shrimp a quick rinse, if needed. Peel and finely dice the garlic cloves. Cut the pineapples into small bite-size chunks. If using large okra, halve at a diagonal. Otherwise, leave okra whole. Quarter the tomatoes. Set everything aside.
- Pan fry aromatics: In a medium pot, heat oil on medium-high. Add garlic and fry until golden brown. Set aside half of the fried garlic for garnish. Add chicken stock to the pot with the remaining garlic and bring the pot to a boil.
- Tamarind: Add tamarind pulp to a mesh strainer and lower it into the stockpot. Use the back of a spoon to help push the pulp through the strainer. Discard remains.
- Season stock: Add salt, fish sauce, optional MSG and sugar (a little at a time) to taste.
- Shrimp and vegetables: Add shrimp. When shrimp start to turn color, add okra and pineapple. Cook for 1-2 minutes. Lastly, add tomatoes and immediately turn off the heat.
- Garnish and serve: Garnish soup with fried garlic from earlier, Thai chili peppers, and either rice paddy herbs, Thai basil, culantro, or cilantro. Serve with steamed rice and one of the following traditional Vietnamese protein dishes for a complete meal.
Notes
If you don’t chicken stock, substitute with same amount of water and add 1 tablespoon chicken bouillon powder.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Category: side dish
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: asian, vietnamese
