Vietnamese Sour Fish Soup (Canh Chua)

About This Recipe

Canh chua is southern Vietnam's iconic sour soup, balancing tamarind's tang with pineapple's sweetness and fish sauce's savory depth, all simmered with fish, tomatoes, and okra or bean sprouts. It's a defining dish of Mekong Delta cooking, where fish and tropical fruit are both abundant. The broth's sourness comes from tamarind pulp dissolved in water, not vinegar or lime alone, which gives the soup a rounder, fruitier tartness. Getting the sweet-sour-salty balance right by tasting and adjusting at the end is the real skill in making a good canh chua.

Ingredients

Serves 4

• 500 gfirm white fish(cut into chunks)
• 3 tbsptamarind pulp(dissolved in 0.5 cup warm water)
• 1 cuppineapple(cut into chunks)
• 2tomatoes(cut into wedges)
• 150 gokra(sliced)
• 1 cupbean sprouts
• 3 tbspfish sauce
• 2 tbspsugar
• 1 literfish or chicken stock
• 2 clovesgarlic(minced)
• 0.25 cupfresh cilantro and rice paddy herb(chopped, for garnish)
• 1-2red chiles(sliced, optional)

Instructions

1. 1

   Prepare the tamarind water

   Dissolve tamarind pulp in warm water, then strain out the seeds and fibers, keeping the liquid.

2. 2

   Build the broth

   Bring stock to a boil in a pot. Add garlic, pineapple, and tomatoes, simmering 5 minutes.

3. 3

   Add tamarind and season

   Stir in the tamarind liquid, fish sauce, and sugar. Taste and adjust for a balanced sweet-sour-salty flavor.

   The broth should taste distinctly sour and sweet at once — add more tamarind or sugar to find that balance.

4. 4

   Cook the fish

   Gently add the fish chunks and simmer 6-8 minutes until just cooked through, being careful not to break up the pieces.

5. 5

   Add okra and sprouts

   Add okra and simmer 3 more minutes, then stir in bean sprouts just before removing from heat.

6. 6

   Garnish and serve

   Ladle into bowls, top with fresh herbs and sliced chiles if using, and serve with steamed rice.

Variations

• •

  Use shrimp or catfish instead of white fish fillets for different regional variations.

• •

  Add elephant ear stem (bac ha) if available for the traditional texture found in Mekong Delta versions.

• •

  Adjust sweetness with palm sugar instead of white sugar for a more traditional flavor.

Storage

Best eaten the day it's made, since the fish continues to soften and the vegetables lose their texture on reheating.

Frequently Asked Questions