Tom Yum Soup
Tom Yum Soup
I have been thinking about this soup ever since I had dentist, Dr Rhona Eskander on my FAST FOOD series. She said it was a meal that she had enjoyed on her gap year and it made her feel happy and less homesick. This image has stuck with me and I felt like I needed that comforting feeling during this dark January. This is relatively straight forward but it does have a few ingredients. It is totally worth it though as it is bursting which such a wonderful deep flavour. Traditionally it is made with prawns but for January I am trying to create more vegan dishes and so this version is plant-based! It’s a great way to use silken tofu which can be hard to cook with. Just the thought of it right now makes me feel good! I hope you enjoy it!
GF/ DF/ Vegan
Serves a greedy 4
Ingredients:
3 tbsp sunflower/coconut oil
half a medium white onion, thinly sliced
6 garlic cloves, diced or grated
50g ginger, grated
1/2 a red chilli, seeds left in (this will add a mild spice and you can always add more at the end)
1tbsp tomato purée
1 tsp unrefined sugar
4 keffir or lime leaves (dried is fine)
2 lemon grass sticks, outer layer trimmed and bashed with a rolling pin and sliced in two lengthways
1500ml hot vegetable stock
180g Chinese cauliflower, (here it is, normal cauliflower is fine too)
350g shiitake mushrooms, roughly sliced
180g cherry tomatoes, halved
1 tbsp mushroom powder, ( I bought this one from Ocado and its amazing)
160ml coconut cream
1-2 tbsp Sriracha chilli sauce
Juice from 1.5 limes and zest of one
2 tbsp soya sauce
290g silken tofu, cut into cubes
Sea salt
I would recommend doing the chopping and vegetable prep before you start cooking so that everything goes smoothly.
Set a large saucepan to a medium to high heat and add a few tablespoons of oil. Add the onion and fry for about 3 minutes until it has softened and gone translucent. Then add the grated ginger, garlic and chopped chilli and fry for about 1-2 minutes. Next, the tomato purée, sugar lime leaves, lemon grass sticks and fry for about 2 minutes to release the flavours. Pour over the hot vegetable stock and bring everything to the boil and then down to a simmer for about 7 minutes. Then add the Chinese cauliflower and bring back to the boil and then simmer for about 3 minutes before adding in the mushrooms and cherry tomatoes. Simmer for another 3 minutes and pour in the coconut cream and mushroom powder. Remove from the heat and pour in the lime juice, soya sauce, Sriracha sauce, pinch of salt and silken tofu. Check the seasoning adding in more mushroom powder, lime juice or chilli if desired. It should have quite a spicy, fresh but deep sweet and sour taste with a slight creaminess from the coconut. Try and fish out the lemongrass sticks and lime leaves before serving or at least warn your guests. SO delicious with some basmati rice!
This soup can be made the night before and lasts for about 3 days in the fridge!