Thai Coconut Soup

My parents came up from Round Rock to visit for a day on their way to Oklahoma City.  They also came to drop off my amazing Swedish truck!  I am not quite sure where to put it yet.  It’s one of the biggest pieces in our house other than our bed and the couch which makes the options for placement a bit limited.

trunk

There is no rhyme or reason to our house.  I have some modern, some traditional, and some antique furniture and decor.  The problem is that I love certain things about all those styles.  While I dream of a house that would embarrass the homes in Dwell, I know that day will never come.  I am OK with that.  A lot of what we have has been given to me from my mom or Ben’s mom, and I can’t imagine replacing it with anything.  So, welcome to my hodge podge home.

While my mom was here we got pedicures and then went to the store to get ingredients for dinner.  One of the other things my mom brought to me was a wok that I’d bought for $7.99 at IKEA last weekend.  It’s not the best quality piece of cookware I own, but I still wanted to use it.  I decided to make a chicken stir fry and coconut soup.

stirfry

Here is my lovely mother in the kitchen serving up stir fry and soup.  The last couple times we’ve been together I’ve made her cook dinner with me.  I rarely find myself in the company of people who like to cook, so I took advantage of the situation!  She was such a good sport.  Thanks for humoring me, mom!

stirfry2

This recipe is from Tyler Florence.  I took quite a few shortcuts with this since we were a bit strapped for time.  I used store bought chicken broth, left out the shredded chicken and the fish sauce, and used bean sprouts instead of straw mushrooms.  We served the soup with white rice and spinach.

coconutsoup

I liked the clean flavor that the lemon grass and lime juice provide.  The coconut milk makes it nice and rich, but not at all thick or overwhelming.  Adding shredded chicken to this would make it a great choice for a lunch or light dinner.  I liked the bean sprouts, but would have preferred thin slices of mushrooms instead with maybe just a few bean sprouts as a garnish.

Thai Coconut Soup

Ingredients

  • 1 quart chicken stock
  • 1 stalk lemon grass, white part only, cracked open with the flat side of a knife
  • 1 (3-inch) piece fresh ginger, peeled and thinly sliced
  • 2 small Thai chilies, halved lengthwise
  • 2 garlic cloves, crushed
  • 1 (13-ounce) can unsweetened coconut milk
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
  • 1 can bean sprouts, drained
  • 4 limes, juiced
  • Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
  • 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves
  • Cooked white rice
  • Spinach leaves

Directions

  1. Bring the stock to the boil over medium heat in a soup pot. Add the lemon grass, ginger, chilies, and garlic. Lower the heat to medium-low, cover, and gently simmer for 10 minutes to let the spices infuse the broth.
  2. Uncover and stir in the coconut milk, sugar, bean sprouts, and lime juice. Simmer for 5 minutes; season with salt and pepper. Ladle the soup into a soup tureen or individual serving bowls. Serve over rice and spinach leaves.  Garnish with cilantro.