spicy Thai soup

Winter is here and with it comes soup season. I love making soup! As many of you know, I love making and eating Asian food. I was recently looking through my cookbooks looking for new inspiration and stumbled upon an old Thai cookbook. This recipe is a simple version of Tom Yam soup. I like using organic chicken bone broth as I feel like it has more depth and taste than chicken stock. Feel free to use whatever you desire when it comes to vegetables, protein and noodles/rice. I personally like bok choy, snow peas, grilled teriyaki chicken and rice noodles in my soup. Lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves and fish sauce are the key ingredients for making the broth taste authentic. Feel free to replace chicken broth with vegetarian stock and replace teriyaki chicken with teriyaki tofu - the taste might not be as authentic.

Ingredients

2.5 cups of chicken broth (or bone broth)

1 lemongrass stalk, chopped into 4 pieces and slightly crushed

4 kaffir lime leaves, roughly chopped (dried also works)

Red chili pepper flakes to taste

2 tablespoons fish sauce

2 tablespoons lime juice

1 teaspoon sugar

cilantro leaves for garnishing

Noodles

Cooked rice noodles or rice

Vegetables

1 baby bok choy, thinly sliced

1 cup of snow peas

8 small button mushrooms

1/2 red pepper, thinly sliced

Protein

Teriyaki chicken

Creating the Magic!

In a saucepan, heat the broth to boiling point. Add the lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, red pepper chili flakes to taste and return to the boil. Add the fish sauce, lime juice, sugar and simmer for another 15 minutes or so. If you have time, feel free to simmer for another 20 minutes - the longer the better! Taste the broth and adjust accordingly. When you are ready, pour the broth through a fine sieve so that you are left with only the broth. Then it’s time to put everything together. Pour the broth back into the saucepan. Add the thinly sliced vegetables to the broth and let them cook for about 10 minutes. When they are cooked to your liking, add the cooked noodles or rice. Top with sliced teriyaki chicken (if using) and chopped cilantro.

Enjoy!