Tom Yum Soup Recipe
by Sommer Collier — last updated on Feb 9, 2025 
This truly authentic Tom Yum Soup Recipe is straight from our travels to Southeast Asia this summer. Often called Thai Hot and Sour Soup, it’s bold and perky with a pop of spicy heat. Plus, it’s gluten free and paleo.
Sommer’s Recipe Notes
One of the meals I most enjoyed in Thailand that surprised me the most was a light and lean soup called Tom Yum, also known as Tom Yum Goong or Thai Hot and Sour Soup.
Tom Yum is a simple, but flavorful, soup made with fresh lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, fish sauce, chiles, and protein… Usually shrimp. And in Thailand, it’s everywhere. EVERYWHERE.
It’s the most popular soup, arguably the most popular recipe, in the country. And with good reason. It is one of my favorite dishes ever. Thankfully, you don’t have to travel halfway around the word to enjoy the amazing flavor for yourself… Tom Yum with shrimp is actually very easy to make in the western hemisphere, exactly the way they make it in Thailand!
Why You’ll Love Thai Tom Yum Goong Soup
- Incredible flavor – The Hot and Sour Soup flavor comes from the addition of chiles, or sometimes Thai chile paste, and a hearty splash of lime juice added at the end to get the full traditional Thai flavor.
- Easy to customize – With just a few swaps and tweaks you can make the recipe super spicy, change up the protein, and even make the soup creamy with one simple ingredient.
- Good and good for you – This light yet satisfying soup is lean, low fat, gluten free, paleo-friendly and dairy free.
Don’t be scared of the ingredients list for this recipe for tom yum shrimp soup. Once you find these items at an Asian market, they are easy to use and worth all of the flavor you get!
Ingredients and Tips
- Whole shrimp – We’re talking heads and all. You need shrimp with heads to make the “shrimp oil” for the soup.
- Oil – For the shrimp oil. This is drizzled into the soup at the end to offer an intense seafood flavor. You can use any flavorless oil you like!
- Water – You are making your own broth with the herbs and shrimp, so there’s no need for store-bought broth.
- Lemongrass – Fresh stalks of lemongrass offer a bold refreshing taste. Use the softer interior stalks so they can be eaten once cooked. If the stalks are tough you will have to remove them before serving.
- Kaffir lime leaves – Also known as Makrut lime leaves.
- Onion – Shallots or sweet onions are traditional.
- Thai chiles – These small red chiles often called “bird chiles” are hot and flavorful. If you can’t find fresh Thai Bird Chiles, you can use Thai chiles paste instead.
- Galangal – A root herb I had never heard of until our recent trip to Asia. This herb can be found in Asian markets, fresh or frozen. It looks like ginger, but has a completely different flavor. Galangal is not mandatory for the flavor of the Tom Yum recipe, but it is always used in Thailand. It is added to seafood recipes specifically to neutralize the strong fishy aroma.
- Fish sauce – The mother sauce of Thai cuisine!
- Mushrooms – You can use any type of mushrooms you like. Straw mushrooms and enoki mushrooms are traditional, but button mushrooms are fine as well.
- Lime juice – Freshly squeezed. This is highly important! Do not buy the bottled variety.
Recipe Variations
- Creamy tom yum soup – Add some full-fat canned coconut milk before adding the mushrooms to the soup to make a creamier Thai hot and sour soup.
- Extra spicy – You can add Thai chili paste to the creamy version. The coconut milk will balance out the bold spiciness!
- Protein – Not a fan of seafood? Leave out the shrimp and throw in a handful of cooked chopped chicken or slices of cooked beef instead!
How To Make Tom Yum Soup
Tip for Success – Sautéing the shrimp heads is what releases the umami flavor of the shrimp that makes tom yum soup tasty. Don’t skip this step!
Find the full Thai Hot and Sour Soup recipe with detailed instructions, storage tips, and a video tutorial in the printable form at the bottom of the post.
Storage Notes
- Storing Leftovers – You can store leftover hot and sour soup in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 days.
- Reheating – To reheat, use the microwave or gently simmer in a saucepan. Make sure not to overcook the shrimp tho! You can take them out at the beginning and only add them back to the soup while reheating for a few seconds.
Serving Suggestions
Serve tom yum soup in large soup bowls with fresh lime wedges and cilantro. Tom yum is often served over rice, however, it’s low carb if served as is!
Tom Yum Soup (Thai Hot and Sour Soup Recipe)
Video
Ingredients
- 1 ½ pounds medium-sized whole raw shrimp (with heads intact)
- 1/3 cup flavorless oil
- 6 cups water
- 5 stalks fresh lemongrass
- 15 Kaffir lime leaves, fresh or frozen
- ½ onion, peeled and cut into wedges
- 4-6 Thai chiles (or Thai chile paste to taste)
- 1 inch piece galangal root, optional
- 2 tablespoons fish sauce
- 1 cup straw or button mushrooms, sliced
- 1 lime, juiced
- Possible Garnishes: cilantro leaves and lime wedges
Instructions
- Pull the heads off the shrimp and place them in a wok or large skillet. Peel and clean the shrimp and set aside. *You can add the shrimp shells to the skillet as well, but the heads are the important part.
- Add the oil to the skillet and set over medium heat. Add a good pinch of salt. Sauté the shrimp heads to release their flavor into the oil, cooking until they are red and crispy. Then turn off the heat.
- Meanwhile, trim the tips and root ends of the lemongrass stalks and remove the tough outer layers. Cut the lemongrass into 1 ½ inch segments. Cut the galangal into 3 or 4 pieces.
- Using a meat mallet or the side of a knife, smash the lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, onion, chilies, and galangal. Place them in a medium soup pot. Pour the water into the pot then bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 5-10 minutes, until the broth smells bright and fragrant.
- Remove and discard any tough sections of lemongrass. (Keep them all in if the stalks are soft.) Increase the heat to high. Stir in the mushrooms. Boil for 1 minute. Then stir in the shrimp and fish sauce, cooking until the shrimp are just cooked through, about 45 seconds.
- Turn off the heat and stir in the lime juice. Then stir in 3-4 tablespoons of the shrimp oil. (Discard the heads; do not add them to the soup.)
- Serve with fresh lime wedges and cilantro. Tom Yum is often served over rice, however it’s low carb served as-is!
Notes
- Storing Leftovers – You can store leftover hot and sour soup in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 days.
- Reheating – To reheat, use the microwave or gently simmer in a saucepan. Make sure not to overcook the shrimp tho! You can take them out at the beginning and only add them back to the soup while reheating for a few seconds.
Nutrition
Frequently Asked Questions
The name Tom Yum is derived from two Thai words…Tom refers to boiling, and Yum refers to the spicy and sour flavor combination.
There are many variations of Tom Yum Soup in Thailand. Yet this classic recipe, and most popular version, is sometimes called Tom Yum Goong or Tom Yum Kung… AKA Thai Hot and Sour Soup. Both of the words Goong and Kung refer to shrimp or prawns. So in essence, the name means “Boiling Hot and Sour Shrimp” soup.
Tom yum and tom kha are very similar, but tom kha soup is the creamy version of tom yum, with added coconut milk and chili paste into the broth.
No, I would avoid eating the lemongrass pieces, lime leaves and galangal pieces in the soup. That is why they are added in larger chunks so you can see the pieces in your bowl!
Not technically… If you don’t have shrimp heads to make the oil, you don’t have real Tom Yum. But you can still create a wonderfully delicious soup with your preferred shrimp!
Great recipe. I have some Alaskan crab shells in the freezer that I’m going to use in the stock in place of shrimp. Thanks for sharing!
This recipe is amazing! I’ve made it the last two fall/winters and am excited to make it again this weekend. Very quick and easy aside from prepping the shrimp and making shrimp oil. Thank you so much!!!!
I love your soup bowls. Do you mind my asking where you got them?
Hi Diana,
I found those bowls at a local Asian market. The stores around here, not only have Asian grocery items, but they also have cookware, dishes, and home goods. :)
I highly recommend that you make this recipe with a soupworthy Asian mushroom, like straw, enoki, beech, etc. The common Western table mushroom, Agaricus bisporus (a.k.a. button mushroom, baby bella, etc.), does not do justice to tom yum soup. The texture is all wrong, and it looks cheap and ugly. Shiitake imparts a good flavor but also has an incompatible texture. I like to put a few whole peeled straw mushrooms and a few seafood mushrooms or clumps of enoki in my tom yum for a nice contrast of textures and a pretty presentation.
Very tasty, easy to make and close to what I tasted myself in Thailand. Thank you. Made it for 4 people and they all thought it was delicious.
If you stayed in Thailand bit longer you would probably found that the restaurant actually use evaporated. Ilk ot coconut milk.
Very very bland and watery. I added a lot more salt and doubled the fish sauce. Also added a half tin of coconut milk. Got to admit it was absolutely amazing.
A decade ago I lived in Bangkok for three years and I became addicted to Tom Yam Kung (actually to Thai food as a whole) especially when it is prepared properly, spicy hot and tasty. Usually the recipe also includes a couple of cherry tomatoes, which are missing here. Unfortunately restaurants catering foreigners in Thailand very often add sugar to this recipe, to please illiterate westerners tourists, spoiling this heavenly delicacy.
So very yummy! Living near the coast it was easy to find the heads on shrimp. However after sauteing the heads there was very little oil in the bottom of the pan as the heads absorbed all the oil. It was as though a final step about how to extract the oil from the shrimp heads was missing. I added more oil and sauteed a little longer and then squeezed the oil out with a sieve.
Also I added some baby bok choy when I added the mushrooms and it was delicious!
Will definitely make this again!
I made this tonight just as it’s written. Superb! Thank you.
Made this yesterday with all the ingredients. Added a bit more water (About a cup) and fish sauce to create more broth. Unfortunately couldnt find shrimp with heada so i used all the shells and tails for a good couple of minutes, oil turned slightly redder. This was AMAZING! Better than Ive had at restaurants. THANK YOU FOR SHARING!!!!