Traditional Tom Kha Gai doesn't have the spinach, carrots, edamame or baby bok choi in it. This is my take on the soup and I've tried to lighten it up a bit as well as beef up the veggie quotient because veggies are good for you! (heh 'beef' up the veggies - punny, Tracey, very punny!)
Anyhow if you like Thai flavours, if you like hot and spicy with a little creamy and sour MAKE THIS SOUP! soooo good.
And now I'm going back to slurping my bowl down....
Lightened
Up Tom Kha Gai Soup
Or Spicy
coconut soup
This is my take on the classic Thai chicken soup
which gets its rich flavor from quintessential Thai ingredients: coconut
milk, lemongrass, fresh ginger, lime juice, chiles, and cilantro.
Ingredients
2 quarts (8
cups) chicken stock[1]
2 stalks
lemon grass, cracked open with the flat side of a knife or chopped very thinly[2]
3 kaffir
lime leaves, fresh or dried, hand torn (1tblspn kaffir lime leaf powdered[3]
1 (4-inch)
piece fresh ginger or galangal, peeled and thinly sliced
2-4 small
Thai chilies, halved lengthwise (add more if you like hot)
2-4 garlic
cloves, finely diced
1 can light
coconut milk
4
tablespoons fish sauce
1 teaspoon
sugar
1 cup
sliced shitake, cremini or other variety of mushroom[4]
4 limes,
juiced
2 cups
shredded roasted chicken[5]
Kosher salt
and freshly ground pepper
1/4 cup
chopped fresh cilantro leaves
1 cup
shredded carrot
½ cup
frozen edamame (without the shells)
Handful of
fresh baby spinach, washed and chopped
6-8 baby
bok choi (halve the larger ones)
Handful of
rice noodles (linguini size)
Directions
1. Bring the stock to the boil over
medium heat in a soup pot.
2. Add the lemon grass, kaffir lime
leaves, ginger, chilies, and garlic. Lower the heat to medium-low, cover, and
gently simmer for 10 minutes to let the spices infuse the broth.
3. Uncover and stir in the coconut
milk, fish sauce, sugar, mushrooms, lime juice, rice noodles, baby bok choi,
edamame, carrots and chicken.
4. Simmer for 5 minutes to heat everything
through; season with salt and pepper.
5. Add in chopped spinach and simmer
until wilted. The spinach will look a strange green brown colour but think of Popeye - spinach does a body good and you can't taste it!!
6. Garnish with cilantro and serve.
Eat!
[1] I took the lazy way out and used
Campbell’s reduced sodium broth but if you can make your own so much the better
– I sometimes do but not today ;-)
[2] Lemon grass is mostly inedible in
the long form but if you slice it very thinly you can eat it – I like mine that
way, if you don’t then just cut the stalk in half and bruise it with the back
of your knife and then fish it out before serving.
[3] See one of my earlier posts on how
to make your own found here:
[4] the original recipe calls for straw
mushrooms – I used oyster mushrooms which I just hand shredded
[5] I cheat here by buying store
roasted chicken, removing the skin and using the meat from that. I figure if it
ain’t broke, don’t fix it and I can freeze the bones for when I’m ambitious
enough to make my own chicken stock.
