My friend, Barb (Profiteroles and Ponytails) went to Australia several years ago and shortly after we visited her in Vancouver; for our premier dinner she made us the Thai Coconut Soup that is so famous in restaurants and it was delicious! I had no experience cooking Thai food at home and as a gift she bought me a Thai cookbook called Australian Woman’s Weekly, Easy Thai-Style Cookery. It is really my ‘go to’ cookbook for Thai food, my favourite being Lemongrass Soup. It has great step-by-step instructions on how to with very clear photos. You really can’t go wrong. I have made this soup so often I don’t even look at the recipe anymore and basically just eyeball and taste it, so you’ll have to excuse my loosey-goosey measurements! I have served this soup at several dinner parties and I am told by some of my Thai food-lover friends that it is very delicious!
Thai cooking is about balancing salty, sweet, spicy and sour so you really have to taste, taste, taste and adjust as you go along. My Lemongrass soup is my favourite to the restaurant variety as I find some too salty and too sweet. Most restaurant versions also don’t include fettuccine-sized rice noodles (half centimetre wide) in the soup, but there was one place across from the Eaton Centre on Yonge Street that always had the noodles in the soup and I really enjoyed it, so I usually include them!
This soup comes together very quickly, the hard part is waiting for the rice noodles to soften up. You can also substitute shrimp for the chicken.
I always make an extra huge batch so I can take some to work for my lunch the next day.
Thai Inspired Lemongrass Chicken Soup
Serves 3 in large bowls
Ingredients:
- 1 tbsp flavourless vegetable oil
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- 3oog boneless, skinless chicken breast, sliced thinly
- 2 cups thinly sliced plain white mushrooms (I like a lot of mushrooms in my soup)
- 1/2 cup finely sliced onion
- 2 cloves garlic finely minced
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp ground coriander seeds
- 1 tsp ginger (ground is fine, fresh is better)
- 2 tbsp finely chopped lemon grass
- 4 kafir lime leaves
- 2 small bits of dry galangal (Thai ginger)
- 1 tbsp fish sauce
- 1 tbsp lime juice
- 2-4 tbsp sugar (or I used agave nectar)
- 1/2 tsp chili flakes (or to taste)
- 4-6 cup water or low sodium chicken stock (I did a mix of the two to mitigate calories)
- a good handful of fettuccine-sized rice noodles
Garnish:
- 1/4 cup finely sliced green onion (forgot to add for the photo)
- 2-4 Thai basil leaves, chiffonade (did not have this, nor did I miss it)
- handful of chopped cilantro (did not have this, but I surely missed it)
Directions:
- Heat the water in your kettle until boiling. Pour over the rice noodles and allow to sit until they are totally reconstituted, 10-15 minutes. Do not over soak, you want a bit of a bite to it.
- In a large soup pan, heat the two oils until hot but not smoky (the sesame oil has a very low smoke point). Add the onions and stir until slightly translucent. Add the chicken and brown a bit. Turn the heat down to a simmer.
- Mix the cumin, coriandre, ginger and lemon grass together, sprinkle on the chicken and stir until you can really smell it. Add the garlic and stir once. Add all of the chicken stock, kafir leaves, galangal, fish sauce, lime juice, sugar and chili flakes. Stir well. Heat so that the chicken cooks through. Once the chicken is cooked, taste for salty, sweet, spicy and sour balance and adjust accordingly. Remove the galangal and kafir lime leaves, discard.
- Put one third of the cold noodles into a large decorative white bowl. Add ladle-fulls of the chicken soup with bits of chicken, onion and mushrooms. Garnish with the green onion, chopped basil leaves and cilantro leaves. Enjoy.
Cooks tips:
- Store your fresh ginger knobs in the freezer in a resealable container; grate on a fine micro-plane grater when required, you need not peel it! Keeps indefinitely.
- I usually buy a large quantity of lemongrass and chop them finely in my food processor, and then I freeze them in a reusable container. I can usually break off what I need.
- If you are taking the left overs to work, I recommend storing the cooked noodles in a separate container to the soup so that they don’t absorb any more liquid. When you reheat the soup, do so to just before boiling (so the chicken doesn’t cook further) and that way when you put the chilled noodles in, they will cool it down to a palatable level.
- Fish sauce is used in thai cooking instead of salt.
- To save time, I have sometimes used Rosa’s Lime Cordial instead of lime juice, but you have to remember NOT to add the sugar.
Lemon grass is my fave Thai flavor – so unique and refreshing. Your soup sounds YUM.
LikeLike
Mmmm… love the flavours involved…. would love to make this while these cold summer days last!
LikeLike
Hmmm, summer days, sigh! We are in the throws of winter, chilly and snowy. I can hardly wait for summer…sigh.
LikeLike
This soup looks so lovely and light! I look forward to reading more from your fantastic blog.
LikeLike
Welcome Anna, hope you enjoy the blog, I’ve checked out your blog and commented on your Chicken Caccatore, which looked delicious.
LikeLike
Hi! I’ve just found your blog and am so delighted! Your soup looks delicious and is just the kind I would enjoy making.. especially today, it’s a cold, snowy day here in Canada. I loved your tip re ginger, I just found a sad little knob of ginger withering in my fridge… now I know how to save it!!
LikeLike
Welcome Barbara, so glad another fellow Canadian is on board. Hope you enjoy.
LikeLike
We love Thai food at our house and I need to start cooking it . This soup looks awesome!
LikeLike
Welcome Asmita! Hope you enjoy the blog, I’ll check out your’s.
LikeLike
Oh……….now you’re talkin’…………:) It’s no secret I adore Thai cuisine (number one on my list of confessions ;)), and this recipe is just gorgeous Eva. You manage to incorporate so many key flavourings and I’ll have to try the fettuccine at some point – I typically use vermicelli.
Hey, did you get a dumping of snow in TO yesterday? (we had two consecutive falls in Ottawa…). It’s absoultely beautiful outside. Have a great weekend Eva!
LikeLike
Hi Kelly, I didn’t know how else to describe the rice noodles, as I don’t like using the vermicelli as they are too thin. The noodles ate still rice noodles just the thickness of fettuccine!
Yes indeed we got about 10cm of snow, and our crazy city stood still! It is very pretty, everything covered in a lovely white blanket! Thank goodness it’s not too cold.
LikeLike
Absolutely adore all the flavours in this.
LikeLike
Thanks BFN hope your travelling for business went well.
LikeLike
I love Thai food!! I actually wanted to grow my own lemongrass in the backyard but thought I should grow other herbs first..:P The soup sounds so appetising, I wish I had a bowl right now!
LikeLike
Thank you Ichigo Shortcake. I find it so easy to put together that if I am eating alone, I can throw it together in a jiffy and be eating within 10 minutes. I usually make it with shrimp because I always have raw frozen shrimp on hand.
LikeLike
I have to say that I forgot that I bought that cookbook for you — but I’m glad that I did because now you’ve reminded how much I like Thai food! The rice noodles are a great addition to this soup — I’ll have to try it out soon.
LikeLike
Barb, It’s the recipe I served you guys on one of our trip around the world tapas dinners! At least I think it was you! I’ll have to check my dinner party diary.
LikeLike
You’re so right about balancing the flavours for Thai cuisine. When they’re not balanced right it just doesn’t pack that amazing pop of flavours!
LikeLike
It’s an interesting combo of flavours where each one on its own (fish sauce) could be unbearable, yet when put with the rest of the ingredients becomes delicious and necessary! I once made mistake of tasting fish sauce; I couldn’t get the taste out of my mouth for days.
LikeLike
We haven’t tried Thai food at home yet. Mike keeps dying to try it, but Mr. N always beats him to the punch and picks and Asian country. Mike doesn’t want to follow Asia with Asia, so he’s waiting. 😉 This looks like a fantastic soup to try when we get there.
LikeLike
I can hardly wait to read about that series, Kristy!
LikeLike
Eva that looks absolutely delicious! I am new to this sort of cuisine, but I just love it! ….and your photo is stunning!
LikeLike
Ann, you are so generous, thank you. We started replicating recipes ages ago to make healthier versions of them; now we just prefer our versions! Much like my dear dad! I guess the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, after all.
LikeLike
Though I’m a lover of food in general, I do love Thai food and this is an impressive recipe. Looks clean and delicious!
LikeLike
That’s so true, Jed; the Thai way of cooking is indeed clean! That’s a lovely way of thinking about it!
LikeLike
Wow, very “pro” looking soup Eva – I’d be happy to be served this at a gourmet restaurant! I don’t do many varieties of soup… I always make thick, creamy ones… never more stocky ones like this. Looks great, and I’m one of the few people I know who love lemongrass so I’d be all over this 🙂
LikeLike
Thank you so kindly Charles, quite a compliment from someone living I France! I have to say, though, my fav soup of yours was the Japanese with soba noodles, mouth is waterining as I type. YUM! Darn! Now I have to figure out how to have some really soon!
LikeLike
Oh, yum!! This soup sounds fantastic. I’ve yet to try Thai cooking…maybe because I’m intimidated. But, if it’s as easy as you say, I’ll definitely give it a go! x
LikeLike
You should get a cookbook like the one I mentioned Caroline, it has step by step instructions! It’s not a difficult cuisine, just a lot of ingredients.
LikeLike
I have a pretty simple and tasty recipe for the quintessential Pad Thai at the link below on my LJ.
hxxp://a-boleyn.livejournal.com/56453.html
LikeLike
Hi Maria, I’ve made Pad Thai before but found it complicated for mediocre results; I’m assuming that is why you came up with this easy recipe? Very nice. Yet again you have an ingredient I am unfamiliar with sambal oelek ! But I looked it up and I think I might have a jar in my refrigerator (although it is so old, I may not want to use it!!!). I think I might try this recipe for lunch today! Thanks.
LikeLike
The recipe has the 4 essential elements or 4 S’s (sweet, salty, sour and spicy) of a pad thai without some more of the exotic additions. The thing that makes it fast for me is that making the sauce ahead of time and making sure that it’s properly seasoned, allows you to very quickly boil the water for the noodles and stir fry meat and then assemble everything so your guests can be served ‘a la minute’ the way they would be by the street vendors in Thailand.
I like the simpler chili taste of sambal oelek (you can get a version with garlic as well) compared to the more complex Sriracha sauce … though that’s tasty squirted on the finished pad thai. I even use the sambal oelek on my meat lover’s pizza. 🙂
LikeLike
I like a little chopped peanuts and a squirt of fresh lime juice on mine! It you eat at any of the Green Mango’s in TO, the one on Bloor near Islington serves a street version that’s way better than the ketchupy version the regular restaurants make.
LikeLike
I love lemongrass soup! And lemongrass chicken. And lemongrass “tea.” Yours looks great.
LikeLike
That’s amazing, Sharyn, I’d not heard of lemongrass tea before someone les commented, I’m going to give it a go tonight!
LikeLike
Sounds like a fabulous combination of flavours. I’ve bought lemongrass in the past but then chickened out on actually using it for anything and had to pitch it. Will have to give it another try. 🙂
LikeLike
It is very perfumy, Maria, so if you’ve not used it before, go light.
LikeLike
I did slice and freeze about 1/4 cup a while back so I may pull out some, dice it finely and toss into a batch of chicken and rice soup. I pulled some of my yellow split pea and ham soup out of the freezer and warmed it up for lunch today.
Since I just bought a new camera for Christmas, I took a few pictures but I posted just one with the soup recipe at my LJ. 🙂
I’m trying to restrain myself after the sugar cookie picture excess in the previous post.
LikeLike
Very nice photography, Maria! The bowl is gorgeous! Is it one of the pewter bowls from out east? I love hearty soup like the split pea.
LikeLike
The soup bowl is actually a glass tea or espresso coffee cup sitting in a silver plate holder with a matching saucer underneath. Because it’s see-through, I sometimes serve panna cotta or chocolate mousse in it. 🙂
In this case, it was a way to make a humble peasant soup like this yellow split pea with ham elegant enough for a fancy dinner.
PS: I love the ‘rice stick’ noodles you used in your soup though I’ve only used it in making pad thai. 🙂
LikeLike
It’s a lovely bowl, Maria, the soup looks delightful in it. The photos are looking better and better all the time!
LikeLike
Thank you for the compliment.
LikeLike
I adore Thai flavors and food, so am sure this soup would be a winner for me!
LikeLike
Hope you try it Betsy, it’s my fav’!
LikeLike
This looks light and flavorful. What a great recipe. And I second John!
LikeLike
Thanks Greg; it made a wonderful lunch, I put some extra heat in it the next day!
LikeLike
If there’s fettuccine in a soup, it just has to be good! I love this soup in the restaurants, so, why not give it a try at home? Besides, it has fettuccine in it! Thanks for sharing, Eva.
LikeLike
I take it you like noodles? Not sure what they are really called, John, the rice noodles I like to use closely resemble fettuccine size.
LikeLike
Thai is one of my favorite foods – this looks delicious!
LikeLike
Thanks Bill, it was quite tasty for lunch too!
LikeLike
I have that cookbook. It’s such a great introduction to Thai cooking. And that soup you have made is incredibly delicious. I just love the fragrance lemongrass brings to the kitchen.
LikeLike
Very cool Charlie Louie! I’ve made several things from that very cook book!
LikeLike
I have the AWW’s The Big Book of Beautiful Biscuits and it IS a beautifully photographed book. Other than using veg shortening instead of copha, corn syrup instead of golden syrup and making my own self-raising flour, most of the recipes in it are doable.
Of course, it has a recipe for Anzac biscuits. 🙂
LikeLike
Very interesting, Maria, I’ve never heard of Copha but now after looking it up it sounds like it might add a bit more coconut to the biscuits than good old Martha’s recipe. I would think the corn syrup is not dense enough, did it work in your biscuits? If you can’t find the golden syrup, you might try boiling down regular corn syrup because golden syrup is much, much thicker than corn syrup.
LikeLike
Corn syrup worked well where I substituted it for the golden syrup.
LikeLike
Thanks Maria, I’ll keep it in mind if I’m ever out!
LikeLike
Lemongrass is one of my favourite flavours and this soup sounds absolutely wonderful. Lemongrass tea is especially good 😀
LikeLike
Welcome Frugal Feeding! I’ve never had lemongrass tea but will certainly try it! I have a dear friend who cannot drink conventional teas (she get debilitating migraine headaches); she usually drinks ginger tea! I will surely mention this to her, thank you!
LikeLike