Tag Archives: green onions

Thai Coconut Curry Soup

During my maternity leave I was super blessed by our church’s meals program for new moms. Basically, people sign up and bring you food. Heaven on earth. During those days when it seems like all you are doing is feeding an insatiable infant (lovely and wonderful, but dang do they eat a lot in those early days!), having a hot meal brought to your very doorstep is glorious.

It was especially glorious because of the number of incredible cooks in our congregation. We got fabulous lasagna from Traci. A savory and comforting brussel sprout and chicken sausage roast from Peter and Jamie. These awesome slow cooker pork chops from Jana that fell apart practically as soon as you looked at them. You can believe that I sent email after email asking for recipes during that time.

First up for recreation in my own kitchen was this fabulous Thai soup from Sarah. The soup has zip without being too spicy. It’s a burst of awesomeness on the palate that also sits lightly in the stomach–you won’t be going to bed with a rock in the gut after eating a bowl of this. And the lime juice–oh the lime juice. So bright! So zesty! In my mind, fresh lime juice is just another finger pointing to a loving Creator, and I’m not kidding either. (Any other lime juice fanatics out there?) And Sarah amped things up by adding shiitake mushrooms, which I happen to absolutely love. After emailing her and asking for the recipe, she said it came from America’s Test Kitchen Quick Family Cookbook. Irony of ironies, I had that very cookbook from the library sitting in my living room (also the source of the amazing Cajun Corn Chowder that I’ve already made three times in the past two months). So go Sarah! Go America’s Test Kitchen! And with some of Sarah’s modifications plus some of mine, here’s the recipe.

(Serves 6)

Ingredients

1 TBS vegetable oil
1 large boneless, skinless chicken breast
2 large shallots, minced
4 cups chicken broth
2-14 oz cans coconut milk
2 TBS fish sauce
1 TBS soy sauce
1 TBS sugar
8 oz white or cremini mushrooms, sliced
8 oz shiitake mushrooms, sliced
2 carrots, sliced on the diagonal into thin ovals
8 oz snow peas, strings removed, cut in half
Juice of 2 limes
2 tsp Thai red curry paste
1 bunch green onions, minced
Salt, pepper, and more sugar to taste

1. Pat the chicken dry with paper towels and season with salt and pepper.

2. Heat the oil in a large pot or Dutch oven over medium high heat. Just when it starts smoking, add the chicken breast and brown on both sides. Set the chicken aside.

3.  Add the minced shallots to the pot and cook over medium heat until softened.

4. Add the broth and coconut milk to the pot along with 1 TBS of fish sauce, the soy sauce and the sugar. Stir everything together, scraping up any browned bits.

5.  Add the chicken breast back in, cover the pot, and simmer the soup for about 10 minutes.

6. Remove the chicken breast to a cutting board and dice or shred into bite-sized pieces.

7. Add all the vegetables to the soup and simmer for 3-5 minutes, until just tender.

8. In a small bowl, whisk together the curry paste, lime juice and remaining fish sauce. Add it to the soup along with the chicken.

9. Taste, re-season if needed, stir in the green onions, and serve hot!

Thank you Sarah and thank you church friends for bringing such great food and being such a blessing to our little family!

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Tarka Dhal (Lentils with Shallots)

I love lentils–that’s no secret. However, after buying some funky colored red lentils at an Indian grocery store in Delaware, I forgetfully proceeded not to make them. For three and a half years. But my husband’s persistent reminders to me to use what we already have in our pantry coupled with a sighting of  this recipe on Tasty Kitchen moved me to finally correct my error. I cooked them up. And they are so good!

Red lentils are very different than the French green lentils or regular brown lentils I usually work with–after an hour of cooking, they kind of dissolve into a mush, with the consistency of porridge and a flavor not unlike that of mashed potatoes. With the addition of spices and shallots, this dish gets loaded up with flavor, and it is a serious winner. I love everything about this dish–the spices; the polenta-like consistency and texture; the fresh tomatoes; the bright colors. Thankfully I still have plenty of red lentils left, because a second batch is already coming due.

Ingredients

(Serves 3-4)

1 cup red lentils
3 ½ cups water
1 TBS vegetable oil
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
4 shallots
4 green onions
2 cloves garlic
1 hot chili pepper (any kind)
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp ground cumin
2 Roma tomatoes
1 tsp salt
¼ cup chopped cilantro leaves

First: gaze upon the beautiful color of these lentils.

Ask them: why have you been sitting in the pantry for 3.5 years, my darlings?

Combine the lentils and water in a pot, and bring ’em to a boil over medium high heat. Skim off the froth with a spoon . . .

. . . turn the heat down to medium, and cook uncovered for 10 minutes. After those 10 minutes, the bright funky orange will be on its way out, and a mild yellow will be on its way in.

Cover the pot . . .

. . . turn down the heat to low, and continue cooking the lentils for 40 minutes, stirring every 7-8 minutes so that they don’t stick to the bottom of the pot and burn. The lentils will slowly gain the consistency of a puree.

And now to prepare the flavorful part of this dish!

Mince the shallots, green onions, chili pepper, and garlic.

Dice up the tomato . . .

. . . and measure out the spices. Chop up the cilantro, too. Put all the ingredients into little bowls, ready to go by the stove. Once you start cooking this part, it all happens so fast that you won’t have time to dice or measure anything.

Ten minutes before the lentils are done cooking, they look something like this:

Getting thicker by the minte, and almost done! Which means it’s time to cook up the final components. Heat the oil, mustard seeds, and cumin seeds in a pan over medium heat.

You’ll notice I lacked cumin seeds–but I compensated by adding extra cumin powder later. When the mustard seeds start popping, add the shallots, garlic, green onions, and hot pepper to the skillet.

Cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring frequently. Add the ground cumin and turmeric, and stir to combine.

Add the tomatoes . . .

. . . and cook for about 40 seconds (no more than 1 minute), so that the tomato heats through.

Add the veggie/spice mixture to the lentils, and stir to combine.

Now it’s time to add salt to taste. I probably used about 1 tsp, but everyone’s taste buds are unique, so grab a spoon and taste until you get it right!

Ta daa! Now stir in the cilantro off the heat, and we’re done.

Serve over rice!

It’s such a delicious dish–and healthy to boot!

I love it when delicious and healthy converge. Can I hear a ‘heck yeah’ from my vegan friends out there?

Plus, I think the dish is beautiful. I was afraid of a mushy pile that would resist the lens–but my camera loved the beautiful yellow of the lentils and turmeric, and the hints of red tomato and green cilantro and onions. I couldn’t stop photographing it . . . until a certain young man grabbed the bowl out from underneath my lens and transported it to the table.

C’mon! Let’s eat!

Poor guy. He never banked on having a photo-obsessed blogger for a wife.

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