Tom Yum Soup

This is based off of a recipe that my dad sent me.
Ingredients

• 4 cups chicken stock (or veg)
  
• 15 kaffir lime leaves
• 3 large lemongrass stalks, cleaned, bruised, and cut into 2-inch segments
• 3.5 tbp freshly squeezed lime juice --> should be 1 tbs
  
• 3 green onions, chopped
• 1/2 cup chopped cilantro
  
• 10 ounces firm tofu
• 1 can straw mushrooms
• 1 tbp roasted chili paste
• 2 tsp brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup rice, mixed with 2 cups chicken stock (or veg) (if you want to eat this with rice) --> should be 3 cups
  

In a large soup pot, bring the chicken stock to a boil over high heat. When stock is boiling, add the lemongrass and half of the lime leaves. We cracked them down the center (without breaking them) to release the flavors a little bit.
Reduce heat to a simmer and cook for about 5 minutes, until the lemongrass turns sort of a brown color.
While the soup is cooking, mix the green onions, the lime juice, the rest of the lime leaves (again, cracked down the center), and some cilantro in a large serving bowl. Stir to combine. Set aside.
After the soup is done simmering, scoop out the lemongrass stalks and discard. You don't want to eat these.
Raise the soup heat to high again and add the straw mushrooms, the brown sugar, the soy sauce, the salt, the tofu, and the chili paste. Stir well to combine. When the soup begins to boil, remove the soup from heat and add it to the serving bowl.
We cooked the rice with chicken stock and ate it with this soup. But you don't have to. Or you could use rice noodles as well (this might work better, actually).

Thoughts: This was really easy to make. It took like, 40 minutes (rice included). By itself, the soup probably took closer to 20.
Also, I misread the original recipe that my dad sent me and accidentally put 3 tbs of lime juice in the soup, so it was a little citrus-y for me. In the future, I would put like, 1 tbs in and then serve the soup with lime wedges on the side so people can control the amount of lime juice in the soup. If you find that the soup is too sour, add more brown sugar and that should cut the sourness.
Also, I intentionally put in half of the chili paste as was in the original recipe, and I'm glad I did because there was quite a bit of heat from just the 1 tsp.
I would say that shrimp would probably be good in this recipe too, if you aren't fond of tofu.
Overall, pretty killer recipe.

Disaster index: 2/10. pretty solid. thanks dad.