Easy Vegetarian Thai Coconut Soup

If you enjoy the exotic flavors of Thai food but have never tried making it at home because you thought it would be too difficult, then you should try the following recipe, because it is so easy and all the ingredients are readily available in any grocery store.

These are the only two essential ingredients:
1 can of coconut milk (you can use regular or lite)
1 small jar of red or green Thai Kitchen curry paste

Everything else is optional and you can add to this list if you prefer other ingredients:
1 can of straw mushrooms
1 small can of bamboo shoots
A couple of baby bell peppers
Fresh basil leaves
Fresh cilantro
Ground red pepper or red pepper flakes
A couple of teaspoons of brown sugar

So here is what you do. First, pour the can of coconut milk into a medium sauce pan. If you have never used whole coconut milk before, be forewarned that it will be solid cream on top when you first open the can --- this is normal --- just scoop it out with a spoon and pour the cream and liquid into the sauce pan. Don't worry though: as soon as you begin heating and stirring the ingredients, the separated coconut milk will quickly remix. If you choose to use lite coconut milk, it will pour out like water.

Next, use your small spoon to scoop the curry paste from the jar into the sauce pan of coconut milk. The instructions on the jar specify a certain amount --- usually I just use the whole jar because it is more flavorful.

Now comes the fun part. You can add anything you want. If you want meat, throw in some chicken cubes or shrimp. I prefer this dish to be vegetarian, so I use straw mushrooms, bamboo shoots, and sliced bell pepper pieces. Then I garnish it with fresh basil leaves and cilantro. Add a couple of teaspoons of sugar to sweeten the coconut milk a little more. The contrast of sweet and heat in this dish is what makes it so good! If you want your soup to be really spicy, add some ground red pepper to taste. But the beauty of this recipe is that you can pretty much add anything you want. Sometimes I add freshly grated ginger root. Sometimes I use asparagus left-over from a previous meal. I have also been known to throw in a little orange juice, cinnamon, and even cocoa powder. Of course some of these ingredients are not traditional Thai ingredients, but I'm just having fun experimenting and so should you. It's your meal, not someone else's so make it the way you want!

Once you have everything in the sauce pan, just turn on the heat and stir occasionally until it starts to bubble. This shouldn't take more than 10 minutes and then your Thai coconut soup will be ready to serve. In my experience this makes enough for 2 to 3 servings depending on how hungry you are. Enjoy!