Hey there!
Winter’s coming closer here in Switzerland, the thermometer actually only just reached 6°C today, which in my opinion is way too cold. Well I just love the heat and the sun hence I spent a year of my life in Australia where I definitely got a fair share of that.
To counteract this terribly cold weather I thought a heart-warming soup would be just the perfect thing to have on a day like this. I have also been feeling like some good old Thai food recently so I decided to have go at a soup inspired by this Thailand’s delicious cuisine.
I haven’t eaten Thai in so long. I’d say it’s been over a year. Unfortunately we haven’t got any nice Thai restaurants in my area. Oh well I was spoilt with the most delicious Thai food for a whole year. The selection of Thai restaurants in the town where I lived in Australia was endless.
For today’s soup I went with pretty classic flavourings such as chilli, soy sauce, ginger, lemon grass, kaffir lime leaves and tamarind paste. I haven’t actually ever tried preparing Thai inspired food so I thought it might be a good idea to not be experimental for once. Other than the typical flavourings I obviously used some coconut milk for parts of the liquid added, for the rest I just used water. I try to omit premade vegetable stocks since I find them rather overpowering especially when used in combination with exotic ingredients.
I just like to taste the real flavours, but if you prefer all your food tasting the same, by all means chuck in some vegetable stock.
Then I also added some snap peas, which I only stir-fried quickly just before serving. I also used some eggplant and capsicum. More for the looks than for anything else I also added some bicolour beetroot, if you can only find ordinary red beets though I recommend to use carrots instead or just omit the whole thing other wise you’ll end up with a rather strange coloured soup.
To make this soup a little more filling I also added some noodles and I prepared a batch of my go-to tofu.
I used some brown rice wakame noodles I found at our local organic food shop but you can absolutely use ordinary rice noodles, which can be found at any supermarket these days. I just happened to have spotted those special ones and they looked so interesting so I basically had to buy them. They were actually quite tasty, though I didn’t find them any better than ordinary rice noodles.
The end result of today’s cooking session was a total success. I was quite proud of the outcome since, as mentioned before, I have never prepared Thai inspired food before. Yet it was absolutely delicious and though it didn’t quite live up to the Dubbo Thai Food standards. Well I am not in any way Thai nor have I ever lived there so I obviously can’t prepare this kind of food as amazingly well.
I still absolutely loved this. It was just delicious. So I’d say if you’re feeling like me and want to have some yummy Thai food, but there’s no place around to eat such things, have a go at preparing this soup. And trust me your cravings for Thai food will most definitely be satisfied for a while and if not, well then just make it again and again and again. Well and then you might consider checking if there is really no Tahi restaurant around where you live.
So whether you decide to prepare this soup out of a craving for Thai food or because you are feeling cold and are in need of a heart-warming dinner I’d say I ‘ll leave it with you now. So there you have it, the recipe.
Ingredients
- 1-2 chillies
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 1 stalk of lemon grass
- 1 tsp fresh ginger
- 4 kaffir lime leaves
- 2tbs soy sauce
- 2tbs tamarind paste
- 250ml coconut milk
- 700ml water
- 1 capsicum
- 1 eggplant
- 1 carrot / ½ beetroot
- 200g snap peas
- 175g rice noodles
- vegetable oil
- salt
- Finely chop up your ginger, lemon grass, garlic and chilli
- Slice your aubergine and pepper into small strips. Peel the carrot/beet root into thin slices
- Heat up some vegetable oil in a pan and add your chopped ginger, lemon grass, garlic and chilli as well as the aubergine and pepper strips, fry until slightly brown
- Then add 7dl of water and your coconut milk and the kaffir lime leaves
- Stir in the soy sauce and the tamarind paste and then lower the temperature to low and let it cook for 20 minutes.
- Meanwhile you can fry your snap peas in some vegetable oil and also boil your noodles
- If you are having the tofu, which I highly recommend, you should head over to my tofu recipe for that and also prepare this during the 20 minutes your soup is cooking
- After 20 minutes all your different components should be ready and you can plate it all up.
Voila, dinner’s ready now enjoy your delightful tasting Thai noodle soup. This dinner absolutely lived up to my expectations and completely served its purpose. Nor was I still craving Thai food nor was I still feeling cold. What a success. Additionally to some true deliciousness is the cooking procedure incredibly simple and the time effort basically none existent. Delicious, simple and quick. What else could one ask for?
Bisous
Fanny, the foodie
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