Thai Curry Soup

I know this is the second soup I have posted, but I live in Seattle.  It rains here.  We eat soup-- especially if it is delicious soup that makes you feel like your basement apartment could be a basement apartment in Thailand! It is a coconut curry based soup with lots of spinach and mushrooms and rice noodles and is finished in under half an hour.  The curry paste is the only specialty item, but you can find curry paste in most supermarkets.  Ask someone (preferably someone who works at the store) if you can't find it.

I posted the second picture to show you how I work this soup into an entire meal (because Richard and I eat a lot).  The post on fresh Vietnamese Spring Rolls will be forthcoming in the near future, but for now, I want to concentrate on the soup.  And while it doesn't have any meat in it, it is a soup where you could easily add meat if you desired. In fact, the original recipe called for shrimp, and I think that chicken would work just as well.  That is one of my tricks of vegetarian cooking.  Just take a favorite recipe and take the meat out or replace it with something else-- usually more vegetables or tofu or noodles or beans-- whatever.  However, if your favorite meal is steak...I can't really help you there.

Thai Curry Soup

4 oz vermicelli rice noodles
1 TBSP olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
lemon zest of most of a lemon
1 TBSP grated fresh ginger
2-3 tsp red curry paste (depending on how much heat or spice you like)
4 cups chicken broth (but I am sure you could use vegetable broth)
2 TBSP soy sauce
1 TBSP white sugar
1 can coconut milk (I use the light coconut milk)
1 cup sliced mushrooms.
1 10 oz bag baby spinach
2 TBSP lime juice
1 TBSP fish sauce (optional)
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
2 green onions, thinly sliced

Bring a large pot of water to boil.  Add rice noodles and cook for about 3 minutes.  Drain and rinse well with cold water and set aside.

Heat oil in large sauce pan over medium heat.  Stir in garlic, lemon zest, and ginger and cook for about a minute.  Add the curry paste and cook another 30 seconds.  Add in 1/2 cup of the chicken broth and stir just until the curry paste dissolves, then pour in the remaining chicken broth along with the soy sauce and sugar.  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium low, partially cover and simmer for about 20 minutes.

Stir in coconut milk, mushrooms, spinach, lime juice and cilantro.  Increase heat and simmer for about 5 minutes until the spinach and mushrooms have cooked.  I like to add a little fish sauce at this point, because I believe almost everything is better with stinky fish sauce, but don't sweat it.

Turn off the heat and add in the cooked rice noodles and serve the soup garnished with a little sprinkle of sliced green onion.

Note: (the recipe called for minced lemon grass which can be hard to find, but I have found lemon zest and fresh ginger to be a decent substitute so that is what I use)