Thai Coconut Milk Soup (Tom Kha Soup) Recipe
Image from lansang.com
This is a really quick and delicious recipe if you can obtain the ingredients. The thing I love about Thai food is the wide range of tastes that you can get from one single dish: sweet (sugar), salty (fish sauce), tart (lime), spicy (chilies). This soup can be used as a starter, or pair with steamed jasmine rice or Asian noodles as a main course.
- 1 tablespoon peanut or sesame oil
- 1 can light coconut milk
- 1 qt low sodium chicken or vegetable stock
- 1.5 tablespoon fish sauce
- 1 tablespoon palm sugar (or substitute with white sugar)
- 1 tablespoon freshly grated galangal (or substitute with ginger)
- 1 teaspoon garlic minced (optional)
- 4 whole kaffir lime leaves
- 1 stalk lemongrass cut into 3″ pieces
- 3 sliced small thai red chili peppers (or substitute with serrano)
- juice from 2 limes or lime wedges
- cilantro for topping
Mix in choice of cubed chicken, tofu, seafood (esp. shrimp), mushrooms, vegetables, etc.
Heat the oil in a pot on medium heat. Add grated galangal (or ginger), garlic, kaffir lime leaves, lemongrass, chili peppers, and any desired mix-ins (I last used tofu, spinach, and shiitake mushrooms). Saute for a minute to bring out the flavors, then stir in sugar, fish sauce, coconut milk, and chicken or vegetable stock. Simmer on medium-high heat for 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Turn off heat and let cool for a couple minutes. Remove the kaffir lime leaves and lemongrass with a slotted spoon. Stir in lime juice then or serve with lime wedges. Top with cilantro. Serves about 4 people as starters or two people as main courses. Enjoy!
