12.06.2012 - vegan thai coconut soup recipe

I made a vegan thai coconut soup a few days ago and posted a photo on facebook and the overwhelming response was people asking for the recipe.

here's the final product, with a garnish of chopped cilantro leaves.

You'll need

• large thick bottomed pot.
• working stove.
• 2 tablespoons of an neutral oil. I used sunflower, but canola or vegetable would be fine as well.
• about 10 medium sized carrots (about a pound, if you prefer) chopped into 1 inch pieces.
• 3 or 4 cloves of garlic, peeled. You want each piece to be about 2 centimeters, so they may mean leaving them whole.
• 3 or 4 lemongrass stalks. If they're dried, soak them in warm water for about 20 minutes before you use them.
• Ginger, peeled. Enough to give you roughly 10 quarter sized pieces. 
• a handful of cilantro. Pull the leaves off and save for garnish, the stems will be used as well, so keep them.
• two cans of coconut milk (this included the coconut butter than generally is at the top)
• 2 cups of water.
• a heaping pinch of salt.
• about the same amount of cayenne pepper.  

• Add the oil in your pot over a high heat. Let it get hot.
• Add the garlic, ginger, and lemongrass in the pot until the garlic is slightly browned. About 5 minutes.
• Add the carrots, salt, and cayenne. Cook for 2 - 3 minutes.
• Add the coconut milk, water, and cilantro stems.
• Bring to a boil.
• Turn the heat down to medium-low & cook until the carrots are completely tender. This took me exactly 15 minutes. 
• Fish out the cilantro stems. If I make it again I may also remove the lemongrass at this point, I wanted the flavour but there were definitely fibers in the finished soup which I didn't much care for.
• Using an immersion blender, blend however much you'd like. I did it very well, so it was 100% creamy and smooth. But I think it would also be really nice with some chunks of carrot left.
• Garnish with cilantro.

• Enjoy!  

I think that replacing with carrot with pumpkin or squash would also be wonderful, depends on how you feel. 




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I got this recipe from How To Cook Everything Vegetarian by Mart Bittman.
I did tweak it a bit, but the base if from that.
And it's an amazing cookbook, one of my favourites, so I advise having it in your house!