Thai Seafood Soup, Tom Yum Talay in Thai, is my all time favorite Thai soup. If you haven’t had it before, I can promise you that it’s not like any soup you’ve ever had. It has big flavor. It’s fresh, salty, sweet, sour, spicy and light. Mmmm… this definitely makes me miss Thailand. This soup is also good for you. We use a lot of fresh herbs and veggies in it. If you’re not into all seafood or can’t find a seafood mix, just use what you like. You can also use chicken instead of seafood. I’m using frozen mixed seafood, shrimp, scallop, calamari and mussel.
Here are the veggies and herbs, cilantro leaves, tomato, lime, Thai chillies, galangal, shallots, kaffir lime leaves and lemongrass. These all together will give the broth a nice flavor.
The other vegetable that I love to use and it’s super easy to find is white button mushrooms.
You’re probably not familiar with some of these herbs I mentioned earlier so let me try my best to describe them. 🙂 You can find all of these special herbs in your local Thai or Asian grocery store.
Starting with lemon grass. Lemongrass is widely used as a culinary herb in Asian cuisines and also as medicinal herb in India. It has a subtle citrus flavor and can be dried and powdered, or used fresh. We’re using 1 fresh stalk of lemongrass today. Cut it into 2-3 inch long. Discard the leafy part. Use the back of your knife to pound it, just to bruise it to release the flavor. We don’t actually eat it. It’s used to just flavor the soup.
Next, kaffir lime leaves. We don’t eat it either, only used to flavor the soup. Kaffir lime is a citrus fruit native to tropical Asian. The skin is used in many Thai dishes. They are usually mixed in with curry paste. It smells citrusy. We’ll use 4 leaves in our soup today. You can tear them a little bit to release the flavor.
Another one we only use to flavor the soup and don’t actually eat it, Galangal. It is in same family as ginger. The aroma of galangal is different than ginger. Ginger is warm and spicy. Galangal has a sharp, sweet taste and smells like a blend of black pepper and pine needles. I sliced it with a sharp knife. We’ll use 4 slices today. If you can’t find it, it’s not a big deal. I like to add it to mine but some Thai Tom Yum recipes do not require it, so you can leave it out if you can’t find it.
Another herb that you probably are more familiar with is cilantro or coriander. It’s used in many Thai food dishes and we are going to chop and use it at the end to garnish our Thai Seafood Soup today.
Shallot, it has milder taste than onions and I like using it in my Thai Seafood Soup (Tom Yum Talay). If you can’t find it, you can substitute with red onion. I’m using 2 shallots in this recipe and they were quartered before being dropped into the broth.
Thai chillies, these guys are tiny but super spicy. You don’t have to use them if you’re not a fan of spicy food. I’m using 4 today. I smashed them to release the spiciness.
For the broth, I use seafood stock. If you want to make the chicken soup instead of seafood, use chicken broth.
Fish Sauce
Last but not least, Nam Prik Pao
Let’s cook some food!
First step of making Thai Seafood Soup (Tom Yum Talay) is to make the broth. Start with adding seafood stock, lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, shallots, tomato, galangal, and 2 tablespoons of Fish Sauce
Add the mushrooms. Let them simmer for 2-3 minutes, or until they’re soft.
Add 2 tablespoons of Thai chili paste. Stir until combined.
Add the seafood (shrimp, scallop, mussel and calamari).
Simmer over medium heat 2-3 minutes, or until shrimp turns pink and mussels have opened. Scallop should be firm to the touch. From my experience, they will be cooked about the same time. Do not overcook them. Once they are cooked, turn off the heat. Keep in mind they will continue cooking because your broth is still hot.
Scoop the soup to the serving bowl. Since we don’t eat galangal, lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves, I leave them in the pot. But you can put them in the serving bowl if you’d like. Sprinkle with some fresh cilantro, add smashed chillies, and lime juice. How much lime and how much chillies? Good questions. I like it spicy and sour, so I use 4 Thai chillies and 2 limes for the whole pot of soup. It should taste salty, a little sweet and sour. For the spiciness, use less or no chillies if you don’t like spicy food.
Finally, serve hot with some Jasmin rice or quinoa. Enjoy!
I hope you give this Thai Seafood Soup (Tom Yum Talay) a try. The recipe card is below.
- 32 oz. seafood stock
- 2 tablespoons Fish Sauce
- 2 tablespoons Nam Prik Pao (Thai chili paste)
- 3 cups mixed seafood (shrimp, scallop, mussel and calamari)
- 8 oz. white button mushrooms, quartered
- 1 large tomato, quartered
- 1 stalk of lemon grass, cut into 2-3 inches
- 4 kaffir lime leaves
- 2 shallots, quartered
- 4 slices of galangal (optional)
- the juice of 2 limes
- cilantro
- 4 Thai chillies (optional)
- Add seafood stock, lemongrass, lime leaves, shallots, tomato, galangal, and 2 tablespoons of Fish Sauce in a pot over medium heat. Bring to a boil.
- Add the mushrooms. Let them simmer for 2-3 minutes, or until mushrooms are soft.
- Add 2 tablespoons of Nam Prik Pao (Thai chili paste). Stir until combined.
- Add the seafood (shrimp, scallop, mussel and calamari). Simmer over medium heat 2-3 minutes, or until shrimp turns pink and mussels have opened. Scallop should be firm to the touch. Do not overcook them. Once they are cooked, turn off the heat.
- Scoop the soup to the serving bowl. Since we don't eat galangal, lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves, you can leave them in the pot or can put them in the serving bowl if you'd like. Sprinkle with some fresh cilantro, add smashed chillies, and lime juice. Taste it, add more or less. It should taste salty, a little sweet and sour. For the spiciness, use less or no chillies if you don't like spicy food.
I like it spicy and sour, so I use 4 Thai chillies and 2 limes for the whole pot of soup. Use more or less depends on how you like it.
For the chillies, carefully smash them. Take a knife that has a wide blade and place directly over each and use the palm of your hand, press down hard to release the spiciness.
my goodness mink. that looks great!
Thanks Vickie! 😁
Have made this recipe many times and it always turns out fantastic! I usually use water in place of the seafood stock but leave the shells on the shrimp for extra flavor. Have tried other Tom Yum Talay recipes and they don’t even come close to this one. Thank you so much for posting it!! 🙂
Glad to hear of your success with this recipe. Thanks for leaving me a comment and providing alternatives. I love to hear of others changing up recipes to make it their own.
Happy Cooking. 🍽
I made this soup tonight, 3/27/18, and it was excellent. I followed the directions explicitly with the exception that I used fresh ginger slices (could not find galangal), I did not use fresh seafood but a bag of assorted frozen seafood items from Whole Foods, and I added 1 cup of water because I feared the fish stock might be overpowering. I used two fresh Thai peppers but will use four next time. Didn’t know what was meant by smashed Thai peppers so I de-seeded them and mashed them with the back of a spoon onto a carving board and then scraped it into the soup. Grilled some red snapper for the main course tonight and took some of the left over and added it to the leftover soup. It should be great for tomorrow’s lunch. This is a real keeper recipe. I would add another 10 min to the prep time. I will try this again and with a variation of adding coconut milk/cream or a pinch or curry to see how that tastes.
Wow, Mark! I am so glad you liked it. Thank you very much for the feedback. I have added notes to the recipe. Adding coconut milk sounds great, too. It will probably taste like the other recipe I have on the blog called “Tom Kha Gai” (Thai chicken coconut soup) which is my other top favorite Thai soup. I made it with chicken but you can definitely use seafood instead. Hope you check that one out, too. 🙂 Thanks again!
Made this last night. We had it again tonight. Delicious.
I used mussels, squid, monk fish and prawns and probably used more than 3 cups.
Also served with Thai Basil and Cilantro.
Thank you!
xx
Thank you so much @Aurora-Grace Wild. I’m so glad you liked it and of course, the more the merrier! Yummmm. It’s my all time #1 Thai dish.
Dear Mink,
Thanks a lot for sharing your Thai cooking recipes with us!
Although I did not have all the exact ingredients, I just finished making this soup here in Ottawa, Canada and is delicious.
Next time I’ll try the one with the coconut milk and would love to make Thai curry with coconut milk.
Best wishes and keep the good recipes coming! 🙂
Gabriela .
Hi Gabriela! Thank you so much for your comment and kind words. I’m so glad you liked it. Happy cooking! 🙂
Exactly where I wanted to be, and now thanks to you I know how to get there!
(I made stock using mussel shells, celery, bay leaves, lemon grass, thyme & rosemary from my garden, fried chili paste and salt. Simmered for three hours and then separated the solids thru cheese cloth.)
The kaffir lime leaves look like the leaves on my bearss lime tree, but I wasn’t brave enough to use them.
Your stock sounds wonderful, Bill. Thanks for sharing and hope you give other recipes a try as well. We love all the comments and new ideas.
I liked so much
Thanks! I’m glad you did. 🙂
This is the best soup ever, definately miss Thailand with every mouthful thanks for sharing the recipe
You’re welcome.😊 This soup definitely reminds me of Thailand.
Really wonderful recipe. My husband and son said it was DELICIOUS!!
Thank you very much!
I’m glad you guys like them. Hope you check out some other Thai recipes and please let me know if you made them. 🙂
thanks for sharing. I followed your instruction (and the chinese supermarket near me sells kaffir lime leaves and galangal). I have tried to make the tom yum soup without these two and i can tell that with them the soup tastes much better. I can’t find seafood stock so i made my own: i use the left over water after i cook the mussel separately and i also boil the shrimp heads and shells for some shrimp stocks and i made them together. I also put extra tomatoes and the result is amazing sweet stock.
That’s awesome! I love that you made your own stock! And yes, all the herbs makes such difference. I’m so glad you gave it a try and hope you liked this soup as much as I do.
Thanks for the recipe.
Lovely recipe! Tom yum is my favorite soup, and I love how as far as seafood you threw in everything but the kitchen sink 😀 Two things I want to say: 1) if you don’t have or can’t find seafood stock, vegetable stock works great, as long as you compensate with a little extra fish sauce. 2) Button/cremini/babybella mushrooms will work in a pinch, but if you can find better mushrooms, it improves the recipe. I like enoki and/or peeled straw mushrooms for the texture (plus they’re pretty), and/or shiitake for a serious flavor kick.
Awesome, Janine. I’m so glad you loved the recipe. I love mushrooms and sometimes my vegetarians friends would use vegetable stock with just mushrooms. Made it mushrooms Tom Yum and it was so yummy.
What a great recipe. Authentic as it gets. I prefer the heat so I used six chiles. Awesome
Thanks Jim! So glad you enjoyed it as much as I do.
If the seafood is frozen – do I let thaw
Hi Erika. You don’t have to. It will take a little longer so you just have to watch them and do not let them overcooked. 🙂 Enjoy!