Tart Fish Soup Recipe

Now that you have my favorite broth recipes I better share another soup. It’s really autumn now, the perfect time for soups…

Tart Fish Soup

All south east asian countries have a version of this soup & this is an easy one I have been playing with. It took me a while to find organic tamarind paste but it can be found in Portland @ wholefoods & new seasons. It’s a little costly, but you only need two tablespoons per pot of soup, so refrigerated it should last a long while. I also found LOCAL bean sprouts in the same places and it made me really excited. Sometimes its hard to know where the sprouts are coming from and then I am less likely to use them. My favorite fish sauce of all time and the only one I use now is Red Boat.  In all my years of eating fish sauce it is the only one I have found with no sugar in it! 

Fish broth (strained, with any meat returned to broth, but not blended) 

1 tbsp on fat (I use pork or duck fat)

1 small onion thinly sliced

2 tbsp tamarind paste

2 tbsp fish sauce

12 oz of rock fish/ pacific snapper cut into 1 inch pieces

1 large bok choy or 4 or 5 baby bok choy

2 cups or one bag of mung bean sprouts

2 or 3 tomatoes chopped into large pieces

1 tsp ground cumin

1/2 cup of chopped cilantro

1/2 cup chopped green onion

1 inch of fresh ginger grated (more if you like it)

 sea salt to taste

1: heat the fat in a soup pot and fry onion until soft and fragrant, about 5 mins. Add tamarind, fish sauce & broth.

2: add fish and cook for 5 mins before adding the bok choy, cumin and tomatoes. Cook for a few minutes 2 or 3.

3: put a handful (more if you love them like I do) into each bowl. Spoon hot soup on top and garnish with cilantro, green onions and ginger. The sprouts will wilt in the heat. Enjoy!

Enjoy!