This low carb hot and sour soup recipe is packed full of all of those Asian flavors we love without all of the carbs that we don’t love. Chicken stock is flavored with soy, chile sesame oil, ginger, garlic, and lime and then filled with ground beef and cabbage “noodles”.
Just before serving egg white is drizzled into the simmering liquid for texture and protein. Just make sure it’s a slow simmer or your egg whites will break up like mine did! It ended up being not as pretty as I’d like but the flavor was perfect.
I don’t know how the weather is where you are but here in Dallas it has been colder and wetter than normal. It’s nice to see everything greening up and the cattle tanks overflowing but those of us who don’t do well in cold, damp weather are miserable. Most of my kiddos have been fighting the crud with coughing, sore throats, and swollen lymph nodes. Yesterday I built a fire in the dining room fireplace and huddled by it, wrapped in a blanket, to do my work. It was in the 40s which isn’t cold for some of you but for me it is miserable. It makes my body hurt. I fixed the kids potato soup but I skipped dinner entirely because I wanted soup and I couldn’t figure out anything low carb and fast.
Today I woke up exhausted and proceeded to have a crying fit. I felt dull and headachy – and by afternoon my throat hurt and my eyes burned — I just wanted to sleep. Once I started having chills and a fever I figured out part of what was wrong with me. I had succumbed to the mystery icky illness. That meant I wanted soup even more.
When I am sick I want spicy soup. I like hot and sour soup, chicken tortilla soup, or pho as long as whatever it is is spicy enough to make it worth eating. Tonight I decided that I would try to create something that resembled a low carb hot and sour soup, with a good spicy kick. I wanted noodles as well. I mean, who doesn’t crave noodles when they’re sick?
So, I sliced cabbage up for the noodles and it gave me exactly the texture I wanted. The entire batch (which was about 4 cups) only has 244 calories and about 5.4 net carbs. It’s a huge amount but so very satisfying!

Table of Contents
Asian Inspired Hot and Sour Soup
Ingredients
- 2 ounces cooked ground beef
- 2 ounces cabbage sliced in "noodles"
- 2 cups chicken stock
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 1/2 teaspoons chile sesame oil
- 1 tablespoon lime juice
- 1/8 teaspoon dried ginger
- 1/8 teaspoon garlic
- 1 to 2 beaten egg whites optional.
Instructions
- Saute the cabbage in a heavy frying pan until it was tender and caramelized on the edges.
- Add the ground beef, chicken stock, soy sauce, sesame oil, lime juice, ginger, and garlic and bring to a simmer.
- Add the egg whites to the simmering liquid and simmer until they are cooked, about 1 minute.
- Serve.
Nutrition
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Have you made this in the crockpot? How done were the noodles?
it says to add egg whites but not in the ingredients. am I missing something? And I always thought hot and sour soup had mushrooms in it….
The egg whites are optional and they were left out. I’ve added them in. Sometimes it does have mushrooms – I just usually leave them out.
The soup sounds fantastic! Do you have complete instructions for how to put it together?
Sorry.. I had left them off accidentally … they’re there now.:)
Hot and Sour soup is one of my favorite soups. You’ve created a fantastic recipe.
Hot & Sour soup is one of my favorites. Adore that you added crab.
No crab. Carb… Low carb. 🙂