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Thai Hot and Sour Soup

"Fantastic authentic Thai hot and sour soup. Ideal as a starter in a Thai meal. Not very filling, but a great appetizer. Very quick and easy to prepare. The tom yum paste is hot, so try the soup before adding the chile and decide if any extra heat is required. Do not attempt if you do not have fresh coriander, as this is vital!"

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Thai Hot and Sour Soup

Why it works: Lemon grass and lime match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 407 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Thai Hot and Sour Soup

6 servings
Prep10 min
Cook15 min

Ingredients

Directions

Step-by-step directions aren't available for this recipe. See the full recipe at the source →

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

234Calories
36 gProtein
4 gFat
17 gCarbs

Counts 9 of 10 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 9 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Chicken100g cooked165
Mushrooms1/2 cup sliced (35g)15
Lemon Grassjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Kaffir Limejuice of 1 lime (44ml)11
Limejuice of 1 lime (44ml)11
Soy Sauce1 tbsp (15ml)9
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Garlic1 clove (3g)4
Basil5 leaves fresh (2.5g)1
Coriandernot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By allrecipes. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Lemon grass + limetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together407 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  2. Lime + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,491 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Garlic + lemon grasstop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together442 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  4. Chicken + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,172 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-butyl acetate (fruity, banana).

  5. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, garlic, lemon grass, lime, mushroom, fish sauce, pepper):

  1. Corianderfits better
  2. Turmericfits better
  3. Cuminfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, garlic, lemon grass, lime, mushroom, fish sauce, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.