Vegetable Tom Yum Soup

We've been battling colds around here the last two weeks. This called for some spicy Thai Tom Yum soup, which turned out to be fairly simple to make. I got my recipe off allrecipes.com and then tweaked it to fit what supplies I could find.

Ingredients:

10 1/2 cups of chicken stock
12 thin slices of ginger
6 kaffir lime leaves (They're lenticular shaped and two are connected together as if strung on a necklace. These are the essence of the soup. Substitutes, such as lime juice can be used, but you'll lose good flavor.)
3 stalks lemon grass, smashed and cut into 1 inch pieces
1-3 Tablespoons of hot chile paste or Sriracha, depending on how hot you like your soup
3 Tablespoons of fish sauce
9 Tablespoons lime juice
1/2 cup of onions, chopped
3 plum (Roma) tomatoes, chopped
1 cup mushrooms, chopped in half
1 1/2 cups chopped bok choy, cabbage, or Chinese cabbage
1 cup thinly sliced carrot
6 sprigs fresh cilantro (for garnish)
6 green onions, thinly sliced

Directions

Bring chicken stock, ginger, lime leaves, lemon grass, and hot chile paste to a boil in a large pot. I made my stock from scratch and boiled all these ingredients with the chicken carcass. If you do this, then remove leaves, ginger, and grass when you remove the chicken carcass. If you don't do this, allow the herbs and such to steep for 20 minutes before removing them from the broth.


Stir in fish sauce, lime juice, shallots, tomato, mushrooms, bok choy, and carrot. Reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer until the vegetables are tender, about 25 minutes. Garnish with cilantro and green onions before serving. Having rice on the side is ideal. Rice may be added to the soup to reduce the heat level.


Bonus

Employ 3-year-old to cut soft mushrooms.




Comments