Dish

Samlor Korko

Thick Cambodian vegetable and meat soup thickened with roasted ground rice and seasoned with prahok and green kroeung.

Vegetable soup with pumpkin, eggplant and greens in a clay pot, with a bowl of rice beside a river
Illustration inspired by a home kitchen on the Mekong.

Samlor korko (សម្លកកូរ, samlor korko) is a thick Cambodian soup of vegetables, fish and meat, thickened with roasted ground rice.[1][2] Its name means "stirring soup," and its flavor rests on prahok (ប្រហុក) and green kroeung.[2][3]

Cultural context

Samlor korko is a traditional soup, and many Cambodians regard it as the national dish.[2][3] CNN Travel gives it a stronger claim than amok to being the true national dish.[1] It is served in restaurants, at roadside stands and in family homes.[1] It began as a royal dish that could hold up to 100 ingredients and became a rich comfort meal across the whole population, often cooked for a family lunch.[4] Roadside vendors may sell it cheaply, and middle-class families may cook it as a nourishing meal for their children.[4]

A wide white bowl of thick green-brown soup with a meatball and dark leafy greens.
Samlor korko with a meatball and greens, Siem Reap, 2014.

Families often eat it at lunch or dinner with steamed jasmine rice, and older Cambodians are especially fond of it.[2] When it is served family style, the host ladles the soup into bowls, serving elders first, and leaves the pot in the center of the table.[2] It is often made as a shared dish for family and community meals. Cambodianess counts the work of pounding the kroeung and simmering the pot as a way to connect with Cambodian heritage.[3] Original Travel describes the thick soup as Cambodia's answer to ratatouille.[5]

The fish in the soup reflects the place of the Tonle Sap lake and the Mekong River in Cambodian food and in the lives of the communities along them.[4] Prahok ties the soup to the wider Cambodian use of fermented fish as a base flavor.[4] Moringa leaves, called mrum in Khmer, are regarded as essential to the dish.[4]

The MHOPe project of the Heinrich Böll Stiftung in Phnom Penh took samlor korko as its starting point for talking about Cambodia's food systems, nutrition and food security, and how food travels from farm to household.[6] Made with Chef Nak, its video series follows women as they cook their own versions of the soup, telling their stories and their part in putting a nourishing meal on the table each day.[6][4] The project's logo shows turmeric, moringa, fish, green papaya and rice.[6]

Ingredients and preparation

Samlor, also written samlaw, samlar or samla, means soup or stew, and korko refers to stirring the pot. The full name is also written in many ways, including samlor korkor, samlor koko and samlaw kako.[2] The soup always contains prahok and kroeung and often holds more than a dozen vegetables.[1] It is most often made with catfish and pork belly.[1]

The base is green kroeung, an herb and spice paste made here with both the stalks and the green leaves of lemongrass.[2] The paste commonly combines lemongrass, galangal, makrut lime, turmeric, garlic and shallots.[3] Prahok, the Cambodian fermented fish paste, is stirred hard into water, and the solids are mashed and the bones and stringy pieces removed before it goes into the pot. Fish sauce is the closest stand-in when prahok is not available.[2]

Roasted ground rice thickens the broth and gives it texture.[2] Cambodian cooks usually make it from home-grown long-grain jasmine rice, not sticky rice. The rice is soaked, drained, dry-roasted until golden, cooled and ground to a coarse powder.[2] The same roasted rice powder is called Angkor Ling.[6]

In the usual method, the kroeung is pounded by hand in a mortar or blended, then fried in oil. The protein and vegetables go in next, followed by water or broth, the seasonings and the toasted rice.[3] The pot simmers gently so the flavors blend while the vegetables keep their shape.[3] Common vegetables include green papaya, long beans, eggplant, pumpkin, bamboo shoots and leafy greens.[3] Proteins may be pork, chicken, fish or freshwater prawns. Fish sauce and palm sugar season the soup, sometimes with tamarind.[3] Holy basil, coriander and sawtooth coriander are the usual garnishes.[3] Samlor korko is served hot, most often with rice, though it can also be eaten on its own.[3]

History and origins

Samlor korko is thought to be very old, going back to the Khmer Empire.[2] Cambodianess traces its origins to the Angkorian period, centuries ago.[3] Cambodians have eaten it for hundreds of years.[1] It was once cooked for weddings, religious ceremonies and harvest festivals, and over time it became an everyday meal.[3]

The story

The soup appears in a well-known Khmer folk tale about how it got its name. In it, a young prince is lost in the forest, and a "soup of 100 ingredients" nurses him back to health.[5] The prince decides that "stirred soup" suits it better, for all the stirring it takes, and the legend holds that this is how samlor korko got its name.[5]

Hardship and change

Under the Khmer Rouge, in Democratic Kampuchea (1975 to 1979), Cambodians used samlor korko to make the most of scarce food. Its ingredients could be swapped without losing its flavor, which made it practical in hard times.[3] In recent years, vegetarian versions with tofu and versions with coconut milk have appeared, and the soup has become better known abroad as interest in Cambodian food has grown.[3]

Regional and household variations

Samlor korko is cooked in many ways, depending on its purpose and on the means of the cook and the family.[4] In middle- and upper-class homes it is a thick soup, close to a stew, sometimes made with stock simmered for hours. In poorer villages it is much lighter, made with water, and leftovers may be stretched with more water.[2] It is a flexible dish made with local vegetables in season, so the mix changes from one season to the next.[2] Traditionally the vegetables are whatever the farm has to offer.[6]

A white bowl of thick yellow-green soup with greens and vegetables.
A vegetarian samlor korko made with coconut milk, Siem Reap, 2020.

Traditional recipes pair pork or chicken with catfish, and for most older Cambodian cooks a version without catfish is not samlor korko.[2] Younger Cambodian chefs often use only one protein. Restaurants in Siem Reap may use ocean fish in place of river fish and serve lighter versions finished at the table.[2] Cooks who do not like catfish can use another fish.[2] Some versions add coconut milk for creaminess.[4]

Preparations and recipes

  • 196 Flavors
    Cambodian stirred soup of meat and mixed vegetables seasoned with Khmer curry paste and prahok and thickened with ground roasted rice.

References 6
  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 CNN Travel, 30 Cambodian foods every visitor needs to try (December 10, 2019)
  2. ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 2.14 2.15 Grantourismo Travels, Samlor Korko Recipe: How to Make Cambodian Stirring Pot Soup (May 18, 2020)
  3. ↑ 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 3.11 3.12 3.13 Cambodianess, Samlor Korko: A Traditional Cambodian Soup (March 30, 2026)
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 Heinrich Böll Stiftung Phnom Penh, Series of videos with Chef Nak
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Original Travel, Hannah Whitehall, Traditional Food in Cambodia (October 29, 2024)
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 Heinrich Böll Stiftung Phnom Penh, About MHOPe
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This page was last edited on 27 October 2026, at 04:38.