Hot pot is a pot of simmering soup in the middle of the table, with plates of raw ingredients around it. Everyone cooks their own bites in the pot, then dips them in a sauce. To make it at home you need five things: a soup base, a way to keep the pot simmering at the table, things to cook, noodles to finish, and a dipping sauce. Here's what to buy for each.
What is hot pot?
Hot pot (火锅, huǒguō) is a shared Chinese meal. The soup stays at a simmer on the table, and people add meat, fish balls, tofu, mushrooms and greens a few at a time, lift them out when they're cooked, and dip them in sauce. The spicy Sichuan style is called mala, which means numbing and hot. Japan has its own versions, shabu-shabu and sukiyaki, and Thailand has suki.
Your hot pot shopping list
- A soup base: one spicy, one mild, or both.
- A way to keep it simmering: a portable hob or an electric hot pot.
- Things to cook: balls, tofu, mushrooms, greens and thinly sliced meat.
- Noodles or rice cakes to finish.
- A dipping sauce: ready-made, or mixed at the table.
1. Choose a soup base
A packet soup base is a concentrated paste or seasoning that you add to water. Follow the pack for how much water to use.
- Spicy (mala): Haidilao (HDL) spicy soup base, the HDL spicy base for one, and Lee Kum Kee Sichuan hot and spicy soup base.
- Mild: HDL tomato, mushroom and broth flavours, and Oriental Home three delicacies.
- Hot and sour: Lee Kum Kee tom yum soup base, for a Thai-style pot.
If your pot has a divider, you can serve a spicy base on one side and a mild one on the other. See every soup base.
2. Pick your things to cook
Balls, fish tofu and fish rolls
We stock First Choice white fish balls and fish tofu, Chiu Chow large fish balls, the Mushroom Brand 6-in-1 steamboat selection, Hansun fried fish rolls, Oriental Kitchen pork and beef meatballs, and Authentic (Zheng Dian) mushroom pork balls.
Tofu
Tofu King deep-fried tofu puffs soak up the soup, and over the past year they've been the most-bought item in our hot pot range. We also stock Tofu King egg tofu, Honor mini fried beancurd sticks and soybean rolls.
Mushrooms and greens
Enoki mushrooms, the second most-bought item in our hot pot range, plus brown shimeji, pak choi and Chinese leaves.
Meat
Thinly sliced beef or lamb is the classic hot pot meat. We don't always have it in stock, so your butcher or supermarket is the easiest place to get it. Royal Gourmet siu mai are in our hot pot range too.
Whatever you add, cook meat, seafood and frozen balls until they're piping hot all the way through before eating, and follow the instructions on each pack.
3. Finish with noodles or rice cakes
Many people finish the meal with noodles cooked in the soup.
- East Asia Brand sweet potato vermicelli, round or straight
- Konnyaku konjac noodles and Yutaka shirataki noodles
- MLD Lanzhou noodles and Toyoung hot pot noodles
- Honor hot pot rice cake and Jongga sliced rice cakes
Cook each one as its pack says.
4. Make a dipping sauce
For a ready-made option, there's Haidilao's original or spicy hot pot dipping sauce. To mix your own, put a few of these on the table and let everyone make their own bowl:
- sesame paste
- light soy sauce
- chilli oil
- Chinese black vinegar
- chopped garlic, spring onion and coriander
- sesame oil
Not sure which soy to use? See dark soy vs light soy sauce.
5. The kit
You don't need a special pot. A wide pan on a portable hob works, or you can use an electric hot pot. A pot with a divider lets you serve two soups at once. Add small bowls for the sauces, and extra-long wooden chopsticks or small strainers for lifting things out.
Ordering hot pot ingredients online
Soup bases, sauces and dried noodles go by standard DHL delivery, free on orders over £75. Fresh and frozen items, such as balls, tofu, mushrooms and greens, travel in temperature-controlled packaging, with a £5.50 surcharge charged once per order. We can't send fresh or frozen items to the Scottish Highlands and Islands or the Isles of Scilly. See our delivery details, or shop the full hot pot range.
Hot pot FAQs
What do I need for hot pot at home?
A soup base, a portable hob or electric hot pot, things to cook (thinly sliced meat, fish balls, tofu, mushrooms and leafy greens are the usual choices), noodles or rice cakes to finish, and a dipping sauce.
What's the difference between mala and clear hot pot soup?
Mala soup bases are the Sichuan style: hot from chilli and numbing from Sichuan pepper. Clear broth, mushroom and tomato bases are mild. A divided pot lets you have one of each.
Do I need a special hot pot?
No. A wide pan on a portable hob works, or an electric hot pot. A pot with a divider only matters if you want two soups at once.
Where can I buy hot pot ingredients in the UK?
At Tuk Tuk Mart. We send hot pot soup bases, frozen fish balls and meatballs, tofu, mushrooms, greens, noodles and dipping sauces by DHL from our Manchester Asian supermarket, rated 4.9/5 from over 2,700 verified reviews.