Hot And Sour Soup: A Keto-Friendly Delight?

Chinese hot and sour soup is a popular soup that originated in northern China, famous for its blend of spicy and sour flavours. It is typically made with chicken broth, pork broth, or a meat-free broth, along with vegetables and spices. While it is a delicious and comforting dish, especially during winter or when fighting off an illness, it is important to consider whether it aligns with specific dietary restrictions, such as the ketogenic diet.

The traditional version of this soup often contains added sugars, starch, and other questionable ingredients, resulting in a relatively high carbohydrate content. With just the carbs amounting to over 11 grams, it can easily kick you out of ketosis. Therefore, it is generally recommended to avoid including it in your keto diet unless the restaurant specifically claims that their soup is keto-safe.

However, the good news is that there are keto-friendly recipes available for hot and sour soup. By making it at home with carefully selected ingredients, you can enjoy this flavourful soup while staying within the guidelines of your keto diet. These keto-friendly versions typically have a much lower carb count, with some recipes boasting as little as 3.3 grams of net carbs per serving. So, if you're craving a bowl of hot and sour soup but want to stick to your keto diet, consider trying out a keto-approved recipe.

A keto-friendly recipe for hot and sour soup has 3.3g net carbs per serving

Keto-Friendly Hot and Sour Soup

Ingredients

• Chicken broth
• Chicken
• Onion
• Ginger
• Dried shiitake mushrooms or fresh shiitake mushrooms
• Bamboo shoots
• Red bell pepper
• Whole eggs, beaten
• Fresh chilli pepper
• Fresh ginger
• Soy sauce (gluten-free)
• Rice vinegar
• White pepper
• Paprika powder
• Locust bean/guar gum powder (keto-friendly thickening agents)

Method

• Prepare the dried shiitake mushrooms by soaking them in warm water for an hour. If you are using fresh mushrooms, you can skip this step.
• Grab a large pot and add 2 litres of water, the chicken, onions, and ginger.
• Let the mixture boil for 30 to 45 minutes.
• While the chicken is boiling, chop the vegetables into small pieces and set them aside.
• Prepare the chilli paste by chopping the chilli peppers, garlic, and ginger into small pieces. Add them to a mortar with some salt and pestle until it turns into a paste.
• Remove the chicken from the pot and set it aside to cool. Then, remove the ginger pieces and onion from the broth and discard them.
• Once the chicken is cool enough to handle, separate the flesh from the bones and shred the flesh into small pieces. Add the chicken pieces back to the broth.
• Add the chopped vegetables to the broth along with the chilli paste, soy sauce, white pepper, paprika powder, and vinegar. Let the soup simmer for about 10 to 15 minutes.
• Get two eggs and beat them in a bowl. Start stirring the soup in a circular motion and add the eggs to the soup while continuing to stir.
• Add a small amount of thickening agent to the soup to achieve your desired consistency. Make sure the thickening agent is keto-friendly. Stir the soup for a few more minutes.
• Serve the soup immediately while it is still hot. Garnish with sliced green onions.

Nutritional Information

A one-cup serving of this keto-friendly hot and sour soup contains approximately 3.3 grams of net carbs, 8 grams of fat, and 14 grams of protein. The total calories per serving are 157. Please note that these values are approximate and may vary depending on the quantity of ingredients used.

The traditional soup has 11g carbs, kicking you out of ketosis

The ketogenic diet is a very low-carb, high-fat diet that encourages ketosis, a metabolic state in which your body burns fat as its primary source of energy instead of carbohydrates. Most ketogenic diet guidelines recommend limiting your total daily carbohydrate intake to between 15 and 30 grams. Consuming more than 50 grams of carbohydrates per day may cause you to exit ketosis.

A bowl of traditional hot and sour soup typically contains 11 grams of carbohydrates, which is relatively high given the recommended daily limit. This could potentially kick you out of ketosis, especially if you're already close to your carbohydrate limit for the day.

However, it's important to note that the effect of this soup on ketosis may vary depending on the specific ingredients used and their quantities. Different recipes for hot and sour soup can result in varying carbohydrate counts. Additionally, individual factors such as activity levels, protein intake, stress, and keto adaptation can also influence your carb limit and tolerance for staying in ketosis.

If you're concerned about staying within your carb limit, you may want to consider a keto-friendly version of hot and sour soup. These recipes typically involve using alternative ingredients and cooking methods to reduce the carb content while retaining the flavour of the traditional dish. By making your own soup, you can better control the ingredients and their quantities to ensure they align with your keto diet goals.

The soup is made with chicken broth, pork broth, or meat-free broth

Hot and sour soup is a Chinese soup that is savoury, spicy, and tangy. The soup is thickened and filled with mushrooms, tofu, and silky egg ribbons. The broth is usually made with chicken stock, but you can also use chicken broth, pork broth, or meat-free broth. The soup is flavoured with typical Asian ingredients such as soy sauce, sugar, pepper, and ginger.

The spiciness of the soup comes from finely chopped dried chillies or red pepper/chilli flakes. You can adjust the amount of spice to your taste. The sourness comes from plain white vinegar, Chinese black vinegar, or rice vinegar.

Ingredients:

• High-quality chicken
• One onion
• One red bell pepper
• One carrot
• Bamboo shoots
• Shiitake mushrooms
• Eggs
• Spices (gluten-free soy sauce, rice vinegar, white pepper, paprika powder, one fresh chilli pepper, fresh ginger and garlic, salt to taste, and green onion for garnishing)
• Keto-friendly thickening agent (e.g. locust bean gum powder or guar gum powder)

Instructions:

• Boil the chicken with the onion and ginger for 30-45 minutes, depending on the cuts of chicken.
• While the chicken is boiling, chop the bell pepper, bamboo shoots, carrot, and mushrooms into thin strips.
• Chop the chilli pepper, ginger, and garlic into rough pieces and add them to a mortar with coarse-grained salt. Pestle until you get a smooth chilli paste.
• After the chicken has boiled, remove it from the pot and scrape the flesh from the bones. Cut the flesh into small pieces.
• Before adding the chicken back into the pot, remove the ginger pieces and onion and discard them. Add the vegetables to the pot.
• Season the soup with the chilli paste, soy sauce, rice vinegar, white pepper, and paprika powder. Let it simmer for 10-15 minutes.
• Stir in the eggs: Beat the eggs in a bowl and stir the soup in a circular motion until you create a "whirl". Pour the beaten eggs into the soup while continuing to stir. Let it simmer for 1-2 minutes.
• Add the thickening agent: Add your preferred keto-friendly thickening agent and stir the soup until it reaches the desired consistency.
• Serve the soup immediately, garnished with sliced green onion.

It's seasoned with pepper oils and red rice vinegar

Hot and sour soup can be made keto-friendly, but it's important to be mindful of the ingredients used. While the classic restaurant version may contain unnecessary sugar, starch, and other additives that could potentially kick you out of ketosis, it is possible to make a healthy, nutritious, and low-carb version without added sugar.

One of the key ingredients in hot and sour soup is rice vinegar, which is keto-friendly. Rice wine vinegar, in particular, has zero carbs and can be safely used in keto cooking. It is made by fermenting the starch from rice with the "Mother of Vinegar," resulting in a slightly sweeter vinegar than regular rice vinegar. It is important to distinguish between rice wine vinegar and rice vinegar, as they have different flavour profiles.

When seasoning hot and sour soup, white pepper is preferred over black pepper for its unique flavour. Additionally, pepper oils, which are derived from peppers, can be used as a seasoning. Peppers are keto-friendly, especially green bell peppers, which have the lowest net carb count among all bell peppers.

In summary, hot and sour soup can be made keto-approved by carefully selecting ingredients and seasonings. Rice wine vinegar, white pepper, and pepper oils derived from keto-friendly peppers can all be used to create a delicious and compliant version of this classic dish.

You can add tofu, chicken, or steak for protein

Tofu, chicken, or steak can be added to hot and sour soup to increase its protein content. For instance, a keto-friendly hot and sour soup recipe includes chicken, while another recipe suggests adding shredded chicken or thinly sliced pork tenderloin or shoulder.

If you're a tofu fan, you can add extra firm tofu to your soup, which not only boosts its protein content but also adds a nice texture, making it taste more authentic.

For a heartier meal, you can also include steak by using cooked and diced steak pieces. This option provides a good source of protein and allows you to customize the soup to your taste preferences.

So, whether it's tofu, chicken, or steak, you can easily enhance the nutritional profile of your hot and sour soup while keeping it keto-friendly.

Frequently asked questions