I love a good noodle soup. It is the ultimate in quick, easy, tasty and nutricious food. While a nice simple stock base is just what you need sometimes, it can also be a little bit dull, but coconut milk, and some spice are a great way to make it a lot more exciting without any extra effort.
Adding just a little Thai green curry paste whilst frying the tofu, and then coconut milk to the stock, transforms a basic noodle soup into something resembling a light, noodley Thai Green Curry.
I like to throw tofu, mushrooms, broccoli, sugarsnaps and carrot into the soup, but you can use whatever crunchy veg you fancy. Red pepper, green beans and babycorn work especially well; think along the lines of what you'd put in a stir-fry. Likewise, fresh prawns or some cooked roast chicken work just as well as tofu.
Rice noodles are great in this soup, as they are light enough to take on the flavour of the soup, and won't clump together when cooked. You can get them really cheap in chinese supermarkets, but can often get them in the likes of Tesco too.
Ingredients (serves 3-4)
1 400ml can of coconut milk
500mls of chicken stock
100g of tofu cubed
1/2 a carrot thinly sliced
1 small head of broccoli, chopped
1 handful of sugarsnap peas
4 mushrooms, sliced
2 teaspoons of thai green curry paste
250g dried rice noodles
1 tablespoon of vegetable oil
1 lime
Directions
Heat the oil in a saucepan and add the cubed tofu, mushrooms and zest of the lime. Fry for 5 minutes until tofu is lightly browned.
Add thai green curry paste and fry for 2 minutes. Pour in the stock and coconut milk and bring to the boil.
Bring a pan of water to the boil and cook according to packet instructions.
Add veg to the coconut milk and boil for 5 minutes.
Divide noodles between 3 or 4 deep dishes and top with ladles of the veg and coconut soup.
Serve with a wedge of lime to squeeze in.
Image via BBC Good Food