Easiest Vietnamese Sour Soup (Canh Chua) Recipe with Shrimp
About This Vietnamese Sour Soup Recipe (Canh Chua)
This is one of the easiest soup recipes you'll ever make! Especially if you have an Instant Pot / pressure cooker, it's literally a one-step process. Then just sit back and wait for your easy dinner to cook! Even if you're doing the stove top version, you will be blown away by how simple this recipe is. As far as Vietnamese food goes, I'm not sure there is anything easier to make.
Nearly all of the ingredients can be found in your average grocery store – shrimp, fresh vegetables, pineapple and herbs . The only exception may be the tamarind powder / soup mix (a huge must for the tamarind soup base), but it is available on Amazon here.
Read on for the easiest and most perfect Vietnamese soup recipe!
What is Vietnamese Sour Soup
Vietnamese sour soup, canh chua (pronounced gahn joo-ah), is a dish from southern Vietnam – the Mekong Delta region. There are a ton of different interpretations but this iconic Vietnamese sour soup is typically made with catfish, tamarind, and produce such as tomatoes, pineapple and elephant ear stem plants.
Growing up in a Vietnamese home, canh chua was a staple in my home and a comfort food for me. My mom would make a giant pot and my brother and I would come home to a delicious bowl of soup served with steamy white rice. Since I wasn’t a huge fan of the fishiness from catfish (though I do love seafood in general), she would make it with shrimp instead. I don’t know that I’ve ever had or even seen canh chua on a restaurant menu (though, to be fair, I don’t seek it out). For me, it’s always been associated with home cooking. It's honestly the perfect food for when you're not looking to have anything too heavy, but still want a nice punch of flavor and a filling meal.
My mom’s version had elephant ear plants in them, which is delicious, but I didn’t include them in my recipe below due to availability but I highly recommend you include them if you can get your hands on them!
This is the first of my journey back into my roots through Vietnamese cooking. My goal is to experiment with quintessential and authentic Vietnamese cuisine, put my own spin, and create easy Vietnamese recipes that anyone can make at home. I hope this blog will introduce you to new flavors or inspire you to cook more Vietnamese dishes in your own kitchen!
The Base of Vietnamese Sour Soup
The particular kind of sourness you taste in the soup comes from the tamarind. If you want to go all-natural with the soup, you can certainly use fresh tamarind and boil it. Or, you can use tamarind paste or powder. However, for the sake of time, ease and readily available ingredients, use tamarind powder or tamarind soup mix (what I used).
Other ingredients that give the base a perfect balance of flavors is the sugar and fresh pineapple (for sweetness), as well as, the tomatoes (tangy) and fish sauce (salty). Since these ingredients are essential to achieving the taste of Vietnamese canh chua, I highly recommend not excluding any of them.
Proteins in Vietnamese Sour Soup
The most prevalent protein in Vietnamese sour soup is catfish. When using these fish steaks in the soup, it’s called canh chua ca – which literally means fish sour soup. As I mentioned before, I am not a big fan of catfish in this soup. This may sound strange but it’s always tasted too..fishy to me. Odd enough, I like catfish in other dishes such as fried catfish. But in sour soup, it just doesn’t do it for me.
I’ve also seen recipes that call for tofu or pork, as well as vegetarian variations. I, personally, have only had it with catfish and shrimp and I much much prefer shrimp!
Vegetables in Vietnamese Sour Soup
Vegetables commonly found in Vietnamese sour soup include tomatoes, bean sprouts, garlic, okra, and elephant ear plants. My mom never used okra or bean sprouts in her recipe so that’s why I didn’t use it in the recipe below. I did, however, try to grab some elephant ear plants but the Asian markets I went to didn’t have them at the time. And though I really wanted to venture out further into Little Saigon to go to one of the Vietnamese grocery stores, I frankly just didn’t have the time on this particular day. BUT I encourage you to use elephant ear plants if you can – it tastes like a spongier celery when used in this soup. I also added mushrooms just because I love them.
Vietnamese Herbs in Sour Soup
Thai basil, rice paddy herb (rau om), and Vietnamese coriander (also known as sawtooth coriander – rau răm) are all herbs that you might find in other variations of Vietnamese sour soup recipes. Again, I didn’t use these because I didn’t grow up having them in my sour soup so I excluded them purely based on personal preference. However, if you like the taste of these herbs, by all means, use them! I personally love Thai basil in many other dishes.
Herbs I did use in the dish were green onions and cilantro for garnish. This is a common garnish in most Vietnamese soups including pho and bun bo hue.
Vietnamese Sour Soup Recipe
Ingredients:
8 cups chicken stock
½ lb shrimp – peeled and deveined
2 cloves garlic – minced
2 Tbsp tamarind soup mix
¼ cup sugar
¼ cup fish sauce
4 tomatoes – quartered
1 cup fresh pineapple chunks
2 cups mushrooms – sliced
Steamed white rice for serving
Optional: Sliced red chili pepper for spice and fresh cilantro and green onions for garnish
Instant Pot / Pressure Cooker Instructions:
Simply combine all ingredients and cook on low pressure for 1 minute (seriously, that’s it!). Garnish if desired and serve with white rice.
Stovetop Instructions:
In a large saucepan or pot, heat oil and lightly brown the garlic.
Add all remaining ingredients, except for the shrimp, and bring to a boil on medium-high heat.
Lower heat, cover and let simmer for 12 minutes.
Add shrimp and cook until opaque (about 3 to 4 minutes) – garnish if desired and serve with white rice.
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If you try this recipe, tell me what you think! This was my first time cooking canh chua and I was honestly so excited that this recipe tasted just how I remember it because it was so incredibly easy to make!
Check out my other Vietnamese fusion recipes: