Thai Coconut Soup

Yumm. Photo by Ianna Angelo

Like Helaina, I also recently tried to make my own interpretation on a dish we loved while traveling around Europe. What I chose to make to introduce August's Coconut Flavor of the Month, was a spin on the Thai Coconut soup that I had in Hungary, of all places. As one of my favorite soups, it has a complex flavor profile, but I was up for a challenge. It is usually made with ingredients such as chicken, mushrooms, cilantro, curry paste, garlic, ginger, coconut milk, and A LOT of lime. I wanted to be able to stay true to some of the staple flavors in this soup, but I also wanted to mix things up a bit. Since my cooking partner, Sarah, is vegetarian, I opted to use fresh rice noodles and tofu instead of chicken. To substitute mushrooms, I used sliced zucchini. The creaminess of the coconut milk was complimented nicely by the tartness and aromatic nature of of the lime juice and lemongrass, while the sweet flavors of brown sugar and shallots danced gracefully on my tongue. Don't underestimate this dish though, it delivers a lot of heat from the red curry paste. Its texture was thicker and heartier than most Thai coconut soups I have tried thus far, which I enjoyed greatly. I think it could even make a wonderful sauce to put on top of rice. Here's how you make it:

INGREDIENTS:
1 can coconut milk
2 cups vegetable broth (or more if you want a thinner soup)
2 tbs red curry paste
1 tbs soy sauce
1 tbs vegetable oil
1 tbs brown sugar
6-7 cloves of garlic, chopped thick
1 tbs diced ginger
5-6 limes
1 -1 1/2 cup cubed tofu (firm)
1 hand full of fresh rice noodles
1 cup sliced zucchini
handful of chopped cilantro
1-3 inch stock of lemon grass, thickly chopped (do not eat them at the end)
2-3 shallots, chopped
a few fresh basil leaves, which I got home grown from my garden
          *Serves 4-6 people

INSTRUCTIONS:
Begin by chopping the garlic and dicing the ginger to prepare to saute them. I prefer my garlic chopped thick, but you can do as you wish. Heat some vegetable oil (or whatever kind of oil) in a medium-large saucepan. Saute the chopped garlic with the diced ginger on a medium heat, and add in the red curry paste once the ingredients begin to soften. Be careful not to burn your ingredients.

Shortly after sauteing the garlic and ginger with the curry paste, add the vegetable broth, coconut milk, and brown sugar, and increase to a medium-high heat. Stir well. Then, add in the chopped shallots, lime juice, soy sauce, and lemon grass. Bring mixture to a boil, and then decrease the heat to a medium-low once a boiling point has been reached. Let simmer for about five minutes, and then add in the zucchini, tofu, rice noodles, and cilantro. Cook on the medium-low heat until the zucchini has reached your preference of consistency, or for about 5-10 minutes.

Your soup is now ready to serve! Garnish each bowl with some fresh basil leaves. As a reminder, do not eat the large pieces of lemon grass in the soup, they are merely cooked in the soup to infuse flavor.

I can't wait to make this dish again!

-Ianna