Colourful Spicy Thai Soup

Hello Spicy Thailand Food Followers,

I mentioned over a month ago that I would be posting several recipes that we picked up in Thailand in the cooking classes we took.  Well it has taken me a while to find the ingredients and recreate the recipes so I could share them and make them gluten-free, dairy-free and sugar-free.  Instead of sending you on a journey to find the foods, I have modified the recipe to work with ingredients you should be able to find easily.  I also included substitution ideas in the tips section.  Don’t be afraid of the directions – I created a very detailed list.  The photos also give you a great view of how to create this recipe.

The hubby had a sore jaw and asked for soft foods for dinner so I created this recipe to be a meal.  The smells and flavours brought back so many memories of our wonderful trip to Thailand and of course our adventurous daughter who is traveling in Thailand.  This Christmas was the first without her and we sure missed her.  I hope that we shared a virtual meal together as we took in the Thai Soup experience.

Colourful Spicy Thai Soup

Ingredients

• I can of coconut milk (398 ml)
• 2 cups of vegetable broth
• 4 slices of fresh ginger
• 1 stalk of lemon grass – smashed and chopped in half
• Zest of one organic lime
• 20 Stems of cilantro
• 4 small Thai chili peppers
• 2 inches of tofu – herbed or plain
• 1 cm thick slice of Red onion – chopped
• 8 cherry tomatoes – I used a colourful heirloom variety
• 1 inch round of Enoki mushrooms
• 1 handful or 1/2 cup carrot – matchstick or shredded
• 2 tsp of Thai Fish Sauce
• 1/2 lime
• 1 green onion
• 1 handful of cilantro leaves
• lime wedges from other 1/2 of lime

Directions

1. Chop up all the ingredients first.  This step is needed as the soup is complete in under 10 minutes once you start adding ingredients so you will need to have everything ready.
2. Chop the ingredients for the soup base first and place together on your cutting board or a separate plate.
3. The base items are ginger, lemon grass, zest of a lime, cilantro stems, and Thai chili peppers.
4. Slice the ginger in thin slices.
5. Take the lemon grass, cut the thick end with a sharp knife.  Take the side of your knife and smash the lemon grass to help release the flavour.  I used my food hammer to smash it.
6. Zest an organic lime.  It should be organic to avoid nasty stuff you don’t want in your soup.
7. Take the tops off the peppers and lightly smash them.
8. Make a 1 cm slice of a red onion, and dice into small segments.
9. Take a two inch slice of tofu and dice into small segments.
10. Take 8 cherry tomatoes and cut in half.
11. Take a 1 inch segment of Enoki mushrooms, cut off the bottom and separate the mushrooms.
12. Grab a handful of shredded carrots.
13. Cut your zested lime in half.
14. On a separate plate, assemble the garish.
15. Cut a green onion in to small pieces and add to plate.  Assemble cilantro leaves on plate.  Cut limes into segments and add to plate.
16. In a pot, add the coconut milk and vegetable broth.
17. Heat on high for one minute.
18. When totally combined, add the ginger, lemon grass, zest of a lime, cilantro stems, and chili peppers.
19. Cook for 2 minutes on high heat.  Watch to ensure it does not boil over.
20. Add the tofu and cook for a minute and turn down heat.
21. Add everything else on tray – onion, tomatoes, Enoki mushrooms, carrots except the lime.
22. Then add the juice of lime and  the 2 tsp of fish sauce.
23. Cook for 5 minutes or until you see the tomatoes are dented and the onions have changed colour.
24. Pour into bowls.
25. Garnish with green onion, cilantro leaves and fresh squeezed lime juice.
26. Enjoy the tastes of Thailand.

Tips

• This recipe should serve four.  But if you only eat it for dinner, then it serves two with two helpings each.
• You can use a white onion instead of the red onion.
• If you don’t want to use Fish sauce, use Gluten-free Tamari.
• You can use herbed or regular tofu.  As you will only be using a small part of the package, buy a flavour that works for your other recipes – it just should not be a sweet flavour.
• No access to Enoki mushrooms – use any type that is less flavourful and cooks fast.  If using white or brown button mushrooms, slice thinly.
• For the tomatoes you can use cherry, heirloom or a large tomato cut into bit size pieces.  I find in the winter, the cherry sized tomatoes have more flavour than the big ones.
• In Thailand, they leave the base ingredients in the soup – but DO NOT EAT them.  So don’t eat the ginger, the lemon grass stick or the chili peppers.  You could take them out before you add the other ingredients but they continue to add flavour as you finish the soup.
• You will have ingredients left to make a few more fresh rounds of soup on other days IF you buy 4 cans of coconut milk and two boxes of vegetable broth.  Or you can use the remaining ingredients in a salad or stir fry.

May you create your own Thai experience with this wonderful soup.

To children and friends who travel and extend their experience to us all.

Jo-Ann Blondin, your 9CupChallenge partner

This post was submitted for:

• Souper (Soup, Salad & Sammies) Sundays which is run by Kahakai Kitchen.  You can follow Deb’s blog : http://kahakaikitchen.blogspot.com/