Thai Coconut Soup

There comes a time in every mother's life when she gets extremely frustrated, because her kids just won't eat! They refuse anything healthy because it doesn't taste good. Can't really blame them, how many of you (I'm speaking to all the mommies reading this) actually like broccoli or, as a kid, ate your vegetables without complaining? But your worrying days are over. I have a delicious solution to your problem. 3 words - Thai coconut soup! Yes, once your kids get a taste of this yummy soup, you'll have them eating out of your (err..) bowls!

Recipes
* The recipes involves a lot of Asian ingredients, including Thai herbs and spices, so I suggest a trip to the nearest Asian grocery store so that you can stock up on the ingredients to get the perfect flavor of authentic Thai food.

Vegetarian Thai Coconut Soup
Generally, Thai coconut soup uses chicken, but for all the vegetarians, here's an amazing vegetarian soup recipe that tastes just the same. For cooking this soup you can refer to the steps below.

Ingredients:

• Vegetable broth (water, salt, sugar, kaffir lime leaves, ginger and chilli sauce mixed, boiled and strained), 3 cups
• Red onion, 1 (sliced)
• Garlic cloves, 6 (minced)
• Olive oil, 2 tbsp
• Coconut milk, 2 cans (12 ounce each)
• Shiitake mushrooms, 2 cups
• Galangal/ginger, 10-12 slices
• Carrots, 2 (thinly sliced)
• Lemongrass, 1 inch, 10 - 12
• Red chili pepper, 4
• Tofu, chopped (cubes), 16 ounce
• Lemon, 1
• Cilantro, 4 tbsp

Directions:

• Prepare the vegetable broth beforehand, as indicated.
• Use a big soup pot and take the onions, mushrooms, garlic and carrots and saut them in the olive oil for a bit, till they get a reddish tinge.
• Then, add the broth, coconut milk, chili pepper, lemongrass, tofu and squeeze the juice of the lemon into the mixture.
• Keep this mixture on a low flame till it begins to simmer (approximately 20 - 25 minutes).
• Stir regularly to remove any lumps that may form in the broth.
• Before serving, add the fresh cilantro.

This recipe has used tofu as a substitute for chicken. You can also use other vegetables instead.

Thai Coconut Soup With Chicken
The soup with chicken is the traditional soup. So here we go, with the authentic Thai recipethat will serve four.

Ingredients:

• Chicken stock, 17 ounce
• Coconut milk, 17 ounce can
• Galangal or ginger, 1 tbsp (chopped)
• Lemongrass, 5 - 6
• Kaffir lime leaves, 2
• Green/red chillies, 2-3 (or as per your requirement)
• Fish sauce, 4 tbsp
• Sugar, 1 tbsp
• Chicken (breast, cubed)
• Lemon, 1
• Coriander, for garnishing

Directions:

• Take a saucepan and put the lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, chicken stock, ginger and coconut milk in it.
• Let it simmer for around 6 - 7 minutes.
• Then add the remaining ingredients except for the lemon.
• Cook the mixture for about 10 minutes.
• Stir it at regular intervals as the mixture may have a tendency of forming lumps at places.
• Once the soup begins boiling, turn off the flame, pour it in bowls, garnish it with fresh coriander and serve with Thai fried rice!

You can enhance the flavor of the soup by adding any other ingredient that you wish. For instance, you can use jalapeos instead of chillies. Or use chili flakes and oregano for garnishing instead of cilantro. For a perfect serving arrangement, use dark bowls (since the soup has a light color), matching soup spoons and napkins. And serve the soup before a meal or serve it with rice. If serving with rice, place a couple of mint leaves on the plain white rice to make it look picture perfect!