I had forgotten how great this soup tastes! Spicy, slightly sweet, sour, bitter, salty – it has that umami savoury satisfaction factor.
Especially with home made chicken stock… but you can use Marigold bouillon or even plain water and it is still yummy.
You may know it as Tom Yam Gung – Prawn, or Tom Yam Gai – chicken. The fish sauce is an essential part of the flavour combination, so this won’t work for strict vegetarians, but you could try using soy sauce and a little sugar instead and some cubes of tofu.
I buy lime leaves and lemongrass from time to time at an Asian store in Toulouse, and freeze them.
- 1 litre chicken stock (I use home-made, or marigold bouillon)
- 1 tsp Thai Red Curry Paste
- 1 tbslp Thai fish sauce (Nam Pla)
- 1/2 lemon or lime, juice only
- 2 lime leaves, finely sliced
- 5cm of lemon grass stalk, finely sliced
- 100g mushrooms (chestnut or canned straw mushrooms), sliced
- 1 spring onion, sliced
- a few coriander leaves
- a few birds eye chillies
- 200g of peeled and deveined prawns or shredded chicken
- Heat the stock in a saucepan and add the curry paste, fish sauce, lime leaves, lemon grass, lemon juice and chillies.
- Taste and add more curry paste if necessary.
- Bring to the boil and simmer for a couple of minutes.
- Add the mushrooms, the prawns or chicken and the spring onion and simmer for a further 2-3 minutes until the prawns are cooked or the chicken heated through.
- Serve decorated with coriander leaves and a couple of birds eye chillies.
- According to MyFitnessPal, the broth comes to about 50 calories per serving without the chicken or prawns.
- The Thai red curry paste that I have is furiously hot, so 1 tsp is enough - you may need up to 1 tblsp if yours is mild.
If you want to see my meal plans for the week, please go to Meal Plans – you’ll find my outline plan for the current week, and more detailed calorie counted plans for previous weeks.