A hot and sour soup that keeps the comfort and skips the pepper heat

Hot and sour soup is a classic takeout order, and this version brings it home entirely on your terms. The heat comes from ginger instead of pepper, and the sour comes from vinegar, lime, and bamboo. Same craving, met honestly, with nothing outside what your body can currently handle.

The bowl works for you while you eat it. Broth carries glycine and minerals that support the gut lining, and apple cider vinegar adds a bright acidity many people find helps with digestion. Shiitake mushrooms bring polyphenols studied for feeding a healthier gut community, and bamboo shoots are a source of manganese, involved in bone and connective tissue health. Add shredded chicken at the thickening step and it becomes a full meal.

This is whole food cooking that tastes like more than the sum of its parts. Notice the warm color the vegetable puree gives the broth where tomato used to sit. Let the steam rise, let the lime wake up your senses, and slow down for the first spoonful.

Ingredients

• 4 cups chicken broth
• 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1 tablespoon coconut aminos and 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar, in place of rice wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1 tablespoon no-tomato ('nomato') sauce
• 1 tablespoon coconut aminos
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 2 cloves garlic
• 4 shiitake mushrooms
• 8 ounces bamboo shoots
• 1/2 teaspoon lime juice
• 1/4 cup arrowroot plus 2 tablespoons cold water
• 2 green onions
• Optional: shredded cooked chicken, to make it a main

Swaps made: The source's 1/2 teaspoon white pepper is omitted, since white pepper is a seed-spice excluded on AIP, with the ginger, vinegar, and lime carrying the kick instead. The 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar are replaced with coconut aminos plus a touch of apple cider vinegar, and the 2 beaten eggs are left out, since eggs are excluded on AIP.

Method

• Simmer the broth with the apple cider vinegar, the coconut-aminos rice-wine swap, the honey, nomato sauce, the remaining coconut aminos, ginger, salt, and garlic for about 5 minutes.
• Add the mushrooms and bamboo shoots and simmer 5 more minutes. If you are making it a meal, stir in the shredded chicken now.
• Stir the arrowroot and cold water into a slurry, then stir it into the soup with the lime juice until the broth thickens.
• Finish with sliced green onion.

Instant Pot variation

Set the Instant Pot to Saute and bring the broth to a simmer with the vinegar, the coconut-aminos rice-wine swap, honey, nomato sauce, the remaining coconut aminos, ginger, salt, and garlic. Add the mushrooms and bamboo shoots, seal, and pressure cook on high about 3 minutes, then quick-release. Switch back to Saute, stir in the arrowroot slurry and lime juice until thickened, and finish with green onion. (verify - untested conversion)

*Adapted from a-clean-plate*