Vietnamese Cuisine: Sweet and Sour Soup (Canh Chua)


Doris’ second dish is a soup dish. It is simply called Sweet and Sour Soup. In Vietnam, this soup is usually made with fresh fish but for simplicity, Doris made this dish with store-bought tofu fish. You may use any kind of seafood for this dish, according to Doris.

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Ingredients

  • 1 pound Bac Ha vegetable
  • 1/2 pound bean sprout
  • 1 pound tomato
  • 1 tablespoon tamarind
  • 1 pound fish
  • 2 sprigs of Ngo Om herb
  • few garlic cloves, minced

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Instructions

Sweet-and-Sour-Soup-2-300x200Bac Ha is a spongy kind of vegetable, available at Vietnamese groceries. Ngo Om is also a herb found in Vietnamese groceries.
Sweet-and-Sour-Soup-3-300x200To prepare the Bac Ha, peel off the skin and cut into chunks.
Sweet-and-Sour-Soup-4-300x200In a pot, bring 5 to 6 cups of water to a boil. Add tamarind and tomatoes and cook for 10 minutes.
Sweet-and-Sour-Soup-5-300x200Add fish and cook for another 5 minutes.
Sweet-and-Sour-Soup-6-300x200Finally, add Bac Ha and bean sprout. Season with salt and sugar to taste.

Fried the minced garlic in some oil until golden brown. Add the fried garlic to the soup before serving.

Serve hot.

Sweet-and-Sour-Soup-8-300x200Doris served the soup with some vermicelli that has been cooked in boiling water for a few minutes and drain. You may eat the vermicelli with Fish Sauce dipping sauce too.

3 thoughts on “Vietnamese Cuisine: Sweet and Sour Soup (Canh Chua)

  1. Pingback: Chow Times » Mui Ngo Gai Vietnamese Restaurant on Nanaimo and Broadway, Vancouver
    • Hi etranger, tofu fish is mainly made with fish paste with tofu flavour and texture with the addition of soy milk or soy bean related product. We can find tofu fish in chinese groceries here in Vancouver.

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