This tom yum soup recipe is spicy, sour, and aromatic as hell. It takes about 20 minutes and feeds 4 people who like their food with some kick. Fair warning: if you can’t handle spice, maybe start with half the chilies.
This soup is all about balance. You’ve got the heat from chilies, the sour punch from lime, and these incredible aromatics that smell like Thailand in a bowl. The whole thing comes together fast, which is great because once you start cooking, you don’t want to stop and chop more stuff.
The name literally means “boiled salad” if you translate it directly. Tom means boiled, yum is like the dressing they put on spicy salads. Makes sense when you think about it – all those bright, punchy flavors you’d find in a Thai salad, but in soup form.
What You Need for Tom Yum Soup Recipe
Don’t even think about substituting the aromatics.
The Good Stuff:
- 3 lemongrass stalks (fresh only, dried is garbage)
- 4-5 slices galangal (ginger works if you can’t find it)
- 8 kaffir lime leaves
- 6 Thai bird chilies (or however many you can handle)
- 4 cups chicken stock (the good kind)
Everything Else:
- 300g big shrimp, peeled and cleaned
- 200g mushrooms (straw mushrooms if you can find them)
- 2 tomatoes, chunked up
- 3-4 tablespoons lime juice (fresh, not bottled)
- 3 tablespoons fish sauce
- 1 tablespoon tom yum paste
- 1 teaspoon palm sugar
- Cilantro and green onions for the top
| Ingredient | How Much | Don’t Mess This Up |
| Lemongrass | 3 stalks | Has to be fresh, period |
| Galangal | 4-5 slices | Tastes different than ginger but ginger works |
| Lime leaves | 8 leaves | Frozen is fine, dried tastes like nothing |
| Thai chilies | 6 pieces | Start with less if you’re weak |
| Shrimp | 300g | Big ones don’t turn to rubber as fast |
Asian markets have everything. Regular grocery stores are hit or miss. Whole Foods usually has the basics. If you live somewhere with zero Asian food stores, order online. It’s worth it.
Making Tom Yum Soup Recipe
20 minutes total
Feeds 4 people
Getting Started
Prep everything first because this moves fast. Take your lemongrass and smash it with the flat part of a big knife. You want to bruise it good without cutting through.
Same deal with the galangal. Rip the lime leaves in half with your hands. All this beating up releases the oils that make tom yum smell incredible.
Building the Base
Heat up your chicken stock in a decent-sized pot. When it’s bubbling, dump in the lemongrass, galangal, and lime leaves. Let this go for 5 minutes minimum. Don’t rush it. This is where you’re building the foundation that separates good tom yum from the watery stuff most places serve.
Adding Heat
Toss in your smashed chilies and the tom yum paste. Stir it around and let it cook 2-3 minutes. The whole thing should turn orange-red and smell like it could clear your sinuses. Taste it – should be hot and fragrant, but we’re not done.
Vegetables In
Add mushrooms and tomato pieces. Yeah, tomatoes in soup are weird if you’re not used to it, but they add this sweet-tart thing that balances everything out. Cook for maybe 4 minutes until the mushrooms get soft.
Drop in fish sauce, palm sugar, and tamarind if you’ve got it. Everything should smell pretty amazing right now.
The Shrimp Situation
Here’s where people screw up. Add the shrimp and cook just until they turn pink and curl. Maybe 2-3 minutes tops. Rubbery shrimp ruins everything, and there’s no fixing it once it’s done.
Finishing Move
Pull the pot off heat completely. Now add lime juice. Do not add lime juice while it’s still cooking or you’ll kill all the bright flavors that make this soup worth making.
Taste and fix – more lime if it needs sour, more fish sauce for salt, more sugar if it’s too harsh. You’ll know when it’s right.
Don’t Screw It Up
The biggest mistake everyone makes with this tom yum soup recipe is cooking the lime juice. Seriously, take the pot off heat first. Cooked lime juice tastes dead and flat.
Use actual limes, not the fake stuff from a bottle. Same goes for everything else – fresh aromatics or don’t bother. Dried lime leaves are worthless. Frozen ones work okay.
Can’t handle spice? Start with 2 chilies instead of 6. Take the seeds out if you want. No shame in toning it down. You can always add more next time.
The soup gets better overnight. All the flavors marry up and get deeper. Just add fresh lime juice when you reheat it.
Toning Down the Heat
Real tom yum is pretty spicy, but you don’t have to suffer through it. Cut back on chilies or remove the seeds where most of the heat lives. Some people use sweet bell peppers for color without the burn.
Serve with lots of jasmine rice. Rice soaks up spice and makes it easier to handle. Keep some coconut milk around for people who need to cool down their bowl.
The balance of flavors is more important than the heat level anyway. Better to make it milder and get everything else right than to make it so spicy nobody can taste anything else.
What Goes With It
Tom yum works as a starter or main dish. If it’s the main event, have rice ready. The rice helps with the heat and makes it more filling.
Goes great with other Thai food for a full dinner. Mild stuff like pad see ew or massaman curry balances out the intensity. Check out other best Thai dishes that work well together.
Fresh stuff like cucumber salad or spring rolls helps cool things down between spoonfuls. Anything crispy and cold is your friend.
Leftovers and Storage
It keeps 3 days in the fridge, but save the lime juice for when you reheat it. Heat it up gently – don’t boil the hell out of it or the shrimp gets worse and the herbs turn bitter.
The aromatics keep working while it sits, so day-old tom yum actually tastes more intense. That’s usually good news. If it gets too strong, add a little more stock to thin it out.
Common Disasters
Some of the most common mistakes you can do are the following:
- Overcooked shrimp is the worst. They go from perfect to rubber in seconds, so watch them like a hawk. Once they’re pink and curled, they’re done.
- Skipping the aromatic base makes boring soup. Those first 5 minutes of simmering lemongrass and galangal are crucial. Rush that and you get hot sour water instead of tom yum.
- Wrong chilies throw everything off. Thai bird chilies have this specific heat and flavor that’s hard to fake with other peppers. Small hot chilies work okay, but it won’t taste exactly right.
- Trying to use dried herbs instead of fresh is pointless. Fresh aromatics are what make this soup special. It’s worth hunting them down.
Why This Actually Works
This tom yum soup recipe works because it builds flavors the way Thai cooks actually do it – layer by layer, each ingredient added when it’ll have the most impact.
The hot-sour-salty-sweet balance is what makes Thai food addictive. Tom yum nails this balance when done right. Each spoonful hits different parts of your mouth and keeps you interested.
Adding lime juice off heat keeps those bright, fresh flavors alive. Small detail that makes a huge difference.
The best part is you can adjust it. Too sour? More sugar. Too mild? More chilies next time. Too salty? More lime. It’s forgiving once you understand the basics.
Skip the ingredient hunt and get tom yum soup recipe perfection without the hassle. Basil & Co‘s chefs know exactly how to balance those complex Thai flavors – the kind of skill that takes years to develop. No more wondering if your galangal is fresh enough or if you added the lime juice at the right time. Every bowl comes out with that perfect spicy-sour balance that keeps people coming back.
Want to try other authentic flavors? Check out our must-try dishes that showcase real Thai cooking techniques. Come taste the difference that proper ingredients and expert preparation make – because life’s too short for mediocre tom yum.
