Tom Yum Soup Recipe - Authentic

Recipe: Tom Yum Soup Recipe »

This authentic Thai Tom Yum Soup is a chef recipe. Tom Yum Goong is rich, creamy, spicy and sour soup. Made with prawns, lemongrass, galangal, lime and a touch of coconut or evaporated milk, it is the ultimate comforting restaurant style soup to make at home.

About This Tom Yum Soup Recipe

This tom yum soup is the best Tom Yum Soup or Tom Yum Goong I've EVER tasted. It was so good that I had to ask the chef for the recipe and he gave it to me. I first tried this at the FCC Angkor Wat. The FCC by Avani is part of Minor Hotels, an international hotel owned and headquartered in Bangkok, Thailand. Most of their properties are in Thailand but they are spread out across the globe.

I have to be honest, Tom Yum isn't normally my favourite soup. I usually go for Tom Kha Gai with coconut milk. But this soup was so damn good I rethought my stance on tom yum.

Two things made this the best tom yum soup:

Firstly the prawns were not overcooked. In fact the prawns were fried and gave the soup a wonderful textural contrast.

Secondly, the creaminess of the tom yum took the edge off the sourness. They use evaporated or coconut milk in this tom yum soup. If you I love creamy Thai soups like Khao Soi then you will like this.

Ingredients For Tom Yum Soup

• Raw prawns - or "green" prawns. The weight given is with the skin and heads on. You don't need king prawns, I used banana prawns for this.
• Lemongrass - remove the papery outer layers of this fragrant herb. I've given the length because sometimes it's sold cut up and not in a whole stalk.
• Golden shallots - If you can't access golden shallots, half an onion will also work but cut it in half lengthways through the root so that the onion half stays intact
• Galangal - you may need a trip to the Asian grocery store for this camphor style root. Ginger is sometimes used as a replacement but there is nothing quitelike the pine-y scent of galangal.
• Makrut lime leaves - or lime leaves. Look for fresh lime leaves over dried. Tip: you can freeze lime leaves for up to 6 months if you have a lot!
• Straw mushrooms - these are usually found tinned where they are already cut in half. You can also use oyster or button mushrooms.
• Cherry tomatoes - No need to skin these, use these whole!
• Red chilli - for spicy tom yum use a small bird's eye chilli, for a less spicy one use a large red chilli.

• Tom yum paste - I use a bought tom yum paste that contains lemongrass, sugar, garlic, salt, oil, galangal, chilli, shallot, coriander and lime leaves.

• Nam prik pao is a Thai chili paste or chili jam that contains chillies, tamarind, fish sauce, anchovy and dried shrimp. It's a real powerhouse of flavour and is one of the secret ingredients of an amazing Tom Yum Soup.
• Evaporated milk or coconut milk - this is optional but really makes this soup absolutely moreish.
• Lime juice - use fresh or bottled lime juice to give tom yum soup its signature sour flavour.
• Fish sauce - this is used in place of salt to season and sharpen the soup up

Tips For Making Tom Yum Soup

1 - Some of these ingredients are available at the supermarket but a couple like the tom yum paste, galangal and Nam Prik Pao are at the Asian grocery store. But once you have these ingredients you can make other dishes like this tom yum spaghetti (one of my favourite types of fusion spaghetti!). It's always handy having Nam Prik Pao in your fridge if you like making Thai dishes.

2 - Add seasoning with fish sauce and lime juice right at the end when the soup is not cooking any more as this can change the flavour of these ingredients. Alternatively, you can serve these on the side.

3 - If you prefer the tang or the non creamy version aka the tom yum nam sai then omit the milk. Tom yum nam khon is the name of the creamy version which I really love.

4 - If I have leftovers, I keep the prawns separate and heat the soup up on medium heat and then add the prawns right at the end so that they don't turn rubbery.

Serving note: it's traditional to serve the soup with the aromates like the lemongrass, lime leaves, shallots and galangal in it but I actually prefer it when they are removed. I take these out but leave in the prawns, tomatoes and mushrooms.

Tom Yum Soup Recipe

An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott, adapted from

Recipe Overview

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 15 minutes

Makes: 2 large bowls

Ingredients Needed

• 2.5 cups/625ml/0.6quart water
• 250g/8.8ozs raw prawns, weight with head and shells on
• 12cm/4.7inch stalk lemongrass
• 3 golden shallots, around 75g/2.6ozs
• 5 slices galangal
• 6 makrut lime leaves
• 400/14oz tin straw mushrooms, drained weight 200g/7ozs
• 200g/7ozs cherry tomatoes
• 1 red chilli (optional), finely diced
• 2 tablespoons tom yum paste
• 1 tablespoon nam prik pao
• 3 tablespoons evaporated milk or coconut milk
• 4-5 tablespoons lime juice
• 1-2 tablespoons fish sauce
• 1 teaspoon sugar

For Prawns

• Oil for frying
• Shells prawns from above
• 1 teaspoon cornflour or flour
• Pinch of salt and white pepper

Step-By-Step Instructions

Step 1 - First de-head and peel prawns keeping the heads and shells. Place the water in a medium saucepan to boil. Add the prawn heads and shells and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove, drain and discard the heads and shells.

Step 2 - Cut the lemongrass into 2 inch lengths and bruise or smash it with the base of the handle of your knife. Peel the shallots and slice the galangal. Add the lemongrass, shallots and galangal to the prawn stock. Bring back to a boil. Add lime leaves, drained straw mushroom halves, whole cherry tomatoes and chilli. Then stir in tom yum paste and nam prik pao. Once it comes to a boil turn off the heat. Add in the evaporated milk and stir. Then season with lime juice, fish sauce and sugar to taste.

Step 3 - Devein the prawns by cutting down the back and removing the sand vein. Place in a bowl and add the flour, salt and pepper and mix with chopsticks or tongs to coat the prawns with the seasoned flour. Heat a small frying pan on medium heat and add 1 tablespoon of oil. Fry prawns for 1 minute on each side. Reserve 2 large prawns to top each bowl and cut the rest into 2-3 pieces and add to the soup. Finish with coriander and one whole prawn on top.

Personal Note

I make Thai food a lot and it's one of my favourite cuisines as well as being one of my favourite places to visit on holiday. I was at a tourism event for Thailand the other day. I'm not a big drinker and because I was driving and it was lunchtime I decide to have a longan juice. The tourism lady was so friendly and made the drink for me making sure that I got some whole longans in my juice.

I chatting to people while sipping the juice and then a speaker came to the lectern and we were asked to gather around and take a seat. "Please take a seat there," said someone gesturing to the front row where there was one seat empty. I'm usually someone that likes the back of the bus or the back so that I can see everything (from watching too much true crime!) but since she was looking at me expectantly I took a seat in the front row.

The speech started and the first speaker was the ambassador. Then I felt a tickle in my throat. "Oh god no," I said to myself, trying to stifle it. You know how hard it is to stop a cough and I could feel my face getting redder when I was trying to stop it. Then I started breathing oddly because I was trying to stifle the cough. I had to cough and so I had my little coughing fit and then took a sip of drink and hoped that that was the end of it.

Just to make sure, I speared a longan to try and clear my throat but then suddenly I started choking hard on the longan. If it wasn't so embarrassing I'd be laughing at the absurdity of it. I fled from the front row to have my choking and coughing fit never to return there. I watched the rest of the speeches from the side at the back ready to run away. Apparently I later read that while longans don't directly make you cough, in Chinese medicine they are considered a "hot" or "warm" food that makes you cough!

So tell me Dear Reader, have you ever tried making Tom Yum Soup at home and if so, did you make it creamy like this version or the classic clear style? And are you a backseat lurker or a front row rider? And has this sort of thing ever happened to you?