SPICY Thai Fusion Noodle Soup - Vegan & Beginner Level Easy

Sometimes you just HAVE to make soup. Despite being about 35C today here in Chiang Mai, Thailand, Miss 16 has been sick with fever and been in bed for a couple of days. Yes, we ARE staying home away from others and No, we have NO intention of getting tested for anything. It's quite obvious to this experienced mom that she has a basic dose of teenage post-exam tonsillitis and is having some trouble swallowing. So a SPICY 🌶 healing vegan soup was on the menu for Sunday brunch.

After 18 years living in Thailand I've learned enough of classical Thai cooking to be able to break the rules well, and create authentic tasting fusion that suits our health priorities better.

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Preparation time: about 20 mins

Servings: Serves 2

Ingredients:

  • 1 red onion
  • 2 large cloves garlic
  • 1 teaspoon Thai red curry paste
  • 2 tablespoons rice bran oil
  • 1 cup coconut milk
  • 4 cups water
  • 1 teaspoon mineral or Himalayan salt
  • Mushrooms - 2 to 3 big handfuls - I used a mix of shitake and straw mushrooms
  • 1 bunch of either broccolini or bok choy
  • 2 small Thai chilis
  • Rice noodle - enough for 2
  • Fresh Coriander leaves
  • Spring onions
  • Half a juicy lime

Before I start cooking, I often like to simply LOOK at the gorgeous fresh abundance spread out on the kitchen bench and visually SAVOR it for a moment. I mean, we are sooo blessed! The fresh ingredients here in Thailand inspire me to cook constantly!

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Method.

I basically start by chopping the garlic and slicing the onion finely. DON'T use a boring white western onion if you can help it - zero flavor. A yummy, crisp and pungent hom daeng (as we call red onions here in Thailand) is definitely the better option. Heat the oil in a good stainless steel saucepan (see - told you it was fusion - a Thai person makes soup in a wok! 😆) and stir fry the onion, garlic and the red curry paste. Stir till it starts to brown.

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Add the coconut milk, water and salt and bring it to the boil.

Why salt? A Thai person would add fish sauce at the end and never add salt. Me? I prefer good mineral salt for nutritional purposes and we also don't eat SOY (so no soy sauce) - due to the nasty GMOs and chemicals it contains. So if you add salt, add it now. If you prefer fish or spy sauce for your salty flavor, add it at the very end.

Next we add the mushrooms (chopped, sliced or whatever), the BOTTOM part of the greens and the chopped chili.

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A quick word about the chili. I generally use middle of the road Thai chili - the bigger Thai chilis are, the LESS spicy they are. I used 2 chilis not quite as big as my little finger, and we had a spicy soup that cleared the cobwebs but didn't burn or overwhelm the dish. If you use the tiny Thai priki-nu chilis, you might want to consider only 1. 😆🌶 Remember that the red curry paste in our broth already has a weeny kick to iit.

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Bring it all to a rolling boil for about 10 mins, till the crunchy part of the greens are cooked but not soggy.

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Your kitchen will smell like a Thai restaurant right about now. 😋 For extra authentic Thai flavour, we suggest you toss in the washed roots of the coriander - boil them with everything else and pull them out when serving.

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If your green bottoms are starting to look tenderish, it's time to toss in the green tops. Today I used regrown broccoli greens which are super cheap at our local Thai market and not remotely bitter. Broccolini is good too, and bok choy or pak choy are both great too. Notice the grubs have been at them?? ORGANIC for the win. Wash well and rehome any living critters still munching.

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Submerge the greens and you need to work quickly - you don't want to COOK the greens, just pleasantly wilt them. So have everything prepared before you start!

Next in goes the rice noodle. Today I used a slightly thicker rice noodle than normal (it was all the local market vendor had over the Thai New Year long weekend) but it doesn't matter - anything from a glass noodle up works.

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AS SOON AS THE RICE NOODLE HAS WILTED into the soup, turn off the heat. With bigger noodles, this may take 1 minute. With glass noodles (woon sen) this will be instant.

Add the coriander and sliced spring onion.

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And a generous squeeze of fresh lime.

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Cover and let it rest for 5 mins for the noodle to absorb the flavours, and the flavours to meld. Thai food is never served really hot! - that's considered rude.

To serve, use tongs to place the noodle in your bowls first. Then a spoon to pile the mushroom and veggies on top. And then pour the yummy spicy coconut soup over.

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And YES, in Thailand we eat noodle soup with chopsticks!! 😆 And an Asian style spoon for the broth. Interesting cultural note: many Thai people NEVER eat the broth at all, and leave it behind! 😲

ENJOY your kitchen moments.

COOK for the ones you love.

Don't be afraid to EXPERIMENT & IMPROVISE.


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