Wrapping up the beautiful weekend with Tom Yum soup and my favorite part is that it has crab in it…
Happy Mother’s day! Hope all the moms out there had a wonderful Mother’s Day and a great weekend as well. It was indeed a beautiful weekend for me, the weather cooperated so well giving us enough sunshine and warmth. My husband and I did some outdoor activities like motorcycle riding and biking. Now, looking forward to a great week, hopefully it won’t rain much this week.
Yesterday, I went to the Asian store. That store never ceases to amaze me with the exotic fruits, veggies, and seafood they carries. They literally got everything under the sun, some of the veggies/fruits that are common in my hometown are found in that store. I am so glad that it’s only a few minutes drive away from my house.
Making tom yum soup had been on my mind for so long, however, it took a while for me to try it. This evening I was determined enough to try it in my kitchen and I already stacked up all the ingredients for making the soup. I have had this soup a few times at Thai restaurants, I couldn’t resist thinking about it often. This soup is just my kind of soup, spicy, aromatic, and flavorful. The intense aroma of the lemon grass, kaffir leaves, and galangal refreshes me and at the same time opens up all my senses.
I came across fresh crabs and so I bought a huge bag of those too, and decided to make tom yum soup with crab. It came out pretty delicious and yes it was packed with flavor and aroma.
Go ahead and use shrimp, chicken, or just veggies instead of crab.
Crab Tom Yum Soup
Ingredients:
- Crab, cleaned small – 7 (or use shrimp, large-12)
- Chicken stock, low sodium- 4 cups
- Lemon grass, cut small- 1 stalk
- Galangal, cut small- 2 pieces (or use ginger, 3 inch slice)
- Kaffir leaves- 3 (or use lemon peel of 1 lemon)
- Garlic, cut small- 4 cloves
- Fish sauce- 3 tsp
- Lemon juice- juice of 1/2 lemon
- Soy sauce- 2 tbsp
- Chili paste or Sambal Oelek- 1 tsp
- Basil leaves- 5 leaves
- Mushrooms, oyster, enoki or straw- 1 box
- Tomatoes, chopped- 2
- Cilantro, chopped- 1/4 cup
- Spring onion, chopped- 1 stalk
- Ground pepper- 1/4 tsp (depending on your spice level)
Instruction
- Clean the crab thoroughly under running water, remove the intestine & discard it, crab butter is edible so keep that.
- Here is my blog post on how to clean crab.
- Keep aside the middle part and twist the legs from the crabs.
- In a large pot or soup pot, pour the chicken stock, add lemon grass, galanga, kaffir leaves or lemon peel, garlic.
- Let the stock come to a rolling boil.
- Add the cleaned crab to the stock.
- Add mushroom, tomatoes, fish sauce, chili paste, lemon juice, basil leaves and soy sauce.
- Cover the pot and lower the heat, let the crab cook in the stock for about 30 minutes.
- After 30 minutes of simmering, open the lid and have a taste of the soup.
- Adjust the spice and salt levels according to your needs. If needed add more chili paste and fish sauce.
- Add cilantro, green onions and ground pepper to the soup.
- Cook the soup for 10 more minutes.
- Ladle the soup in a bowl along with the crab and enjoy when it is hot.
Tips:
- Please make sure to adjust the spice level according to your needs, if it’s too spicy for you add little brown sugar to adjust.
- Use low-sodium chicken stock.
- You could add shrimp, chicken or just veggies instead of crab.
- If you don’t have galanga use ginger instead.
- If you don’t have kaffir leaves, use lemon peel instead.
- Crab, cleaned small - 7 (or use shrimp, large-12)
- Chicken stock, low sodium- 4 cups
- Lemon grass, cut small- 1 stalk
- Galanga, cut small- 2 pieces (or use ginger, 3 inch slice)
- Kaffir leaves- 3 (or use lemon peel of 1 lemon)
- Garlic, cut small- 4 cloves
- Fish sauce- 3 tsp
- Lemon juice- juice of ½ lemon
- Soy sauce- 2 tbsp
- Chili paste or Sambal Oelek- 1 tsp
- Basil leaves- 5 leaves
- Mushrooms, oyster, enoki or straw- 1 box
- Tomatoes, chopped- 2
- Cilantro, chopped- ¼ cup
- Spring onion, chopped- 1 stalk
- Ground pepper- ¼ tsp (depending on your spice level)
- Clean the crab thoroughly under running water, remove the intestine & discard it, crab butter is edible so keep that.
- Keep aside the middle part and twist the legs from the crabs.
- In a large pot or soup pot, pour the chicken stock, add lemon grass, galanga, kaffir leaves or lemon peel, garlic.
- Let the stock come to a rolling boil.
- Add the cleaned crab into the stock.
- Add mushroom, tomatoes, fish sauce, chili paste, lemon juice, basil leaves and soy sauce.
- Cover the pot and lower the heat, let the crab cook in the stock for about 30 minutes.
- After 30 minutes of simmering, open the lid and have a taste of the soup.
- Adjust the spice and salt levels according to your needs. If needed add more chili paste and fish sauce.
- Add cilantro, green onions and ground pepper to the soup.
- Cook the soup for 10 more minutes.
- Ladle the soup in a bowl along with the crab and enjoy when it is hot.
Use low sodium chicken stock.
You could add shrimp, chicken or just veggies instead of crab.
If you don't have galanga use ginger instead.
If you don't have kaffir leaves, use lemon peel instead.
