I've had a tiny jar of tom yum paste sitting in my fridge for almost a year now so I decided to make Tom Yum Paste Soup with it. You only need 5 ingredients and it's ready in under 15 minutes. The best part is that you can customize it with whatever vegetables you have in your fridge.
My favorite meals are always the ones made with leftover ingredients. There's something very satisfying about cooking with leftovers. Not only are you being less wasteful/saving a meal, but it forces you to be a little more creative. Sure, you can buy ingredients for a recipe, but telling people you could with whatever is in your fridge is a huge brag to your cooking prowess.
This Tom Yum Paste Soup is one of my favorite "leftover meals." It works really well because tom yum paste is super flavorful, so it makes anything taste good. You can customize the soup with whatever you have on hand, mushrooms, bell peppers, tomatoes, the list goes on. I have a bunch of ideas at the bottom of this post.
Key ingredients for the soup
Tom Yum Paste: I'm using store-bought tom yum paste. Unlike fresh tom yum paste, store-bought needs a little bit of help to bring out its flavors. You want to fry it in a little bit of oil to re-ignite its flavors. It is more aromatic this way. This is the brand I usually buy:
Chicken Stock: The bulk of the soup is made with chicken stock, so using a high-quality chicken stock is the best. Homemade chicken stock will obviously be the best, but since this is an easy recipe, I'm using chicken bouillon powder mixed with water. This is the brand of chicken powder I'm using. It is not as salty as other brands which is why I like it:
Coconut Milk: The recipe is designed to use half a can of coconut milk. If you want to use a full can, you can easily double the recipe. I'm using full-fat coconut milk so that the soup will be richer, but you can use any fat percentage you want.
Fish Sauce & Lime Juice: These are both standard ingredients in tom yum soup. Technically, they are already in tom yum paste, but I like adding extra to bring out more of their flavors.
Additions
This is where you can get creative. I usually just throw in whatever leftover veggies I have in the fridge, plus some shrimp to make it feel more authentic. Today, I'm using bell peppers, tomatoes, and carrots. But feel free to use any of these suggestions:
- Mushrooms, tomatoes, bell peppers, celery, carrots, tomatoes, thinly sliced onions/shallots
- Beansprouts, cilantro, green onions, parsley
- Shrimp
If you want it a little more filling, you can add rice noodles too.
Tom Yum Paste Soup
Ingredients
Soup
- 1 ½ tablespoons oil
- ⅓ cup Tom Yum paste
- ½ (13.5-ounce can) coconut milk
- 4 cups low-sodium chicken stock
- 2 teaspoons lime juice
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon fish sauce
Optional add-ins
- shrimp, rice noodles
- mushrooms, tomatoes, bell peppers, celery, carrots, tomatoes, onions
- beansprouts, cilantro, green onions, parsley
Instructions
- Heat a medium pot over medium-low heat. Add the oil and fry the tom yum paste for 1-2 minutes until the oil changes color and it smells delicious.
- Add the coconut milk, chicken stock, lime juice, brown sugar, and fish sauce. Bring it to a boil, then reduce the heat and let it simmer for 5 minutes.
- Taste test the soup and add up to ½ a teaspoon of salt if it needs more flavor. This mostly depends on whether you used low-sodium or regular chicken stock.
- At this point, you can add whatever add-ins you want and just cook them long enough so that they are cooked on the inside. Shrimp will take around 2-3 minutes. If you are in a hurry, make sure to chop your vegetables into smaller pieces so they cook faster.
Mary
The quickest, easiest recipe for Tom Yum soup. I added chicken, mushrooms, and rice noodles.
Grumpy
Thanks, Mary. Glad you liked it 🙂