Thai Curried Sweet Potato Soup

After the near heart attack that I gave John and myself from the macque choux, I have decided to make something a bit healthier.

Thai is one of my favorite varieties of food. Needless to say, living in a small town means that there are no Thai restaurants near to us, and there are very few ingredients available to make Thai dishes. Owensboro's grocery store does carry some of them, however! Ideally, I would want to use a red curry paste to make this. (Someday I will try making from-scratch curry paste!) When I first moved here, the local Kroger didn't carry the paste type, but did have red curry in a powder form. Using the powder turned out really well, and it is what I use to make this recipe every time, even though there is a paste variety available today.

This recipe is not an invention of mine, and unfortunately I cannot remember where I found it (I think cooks.com, but I couldn't find it when I searched), but when I did, I knew that this was a perfect healthy, small town friendly option for me. This vegetarian soup is similar to the classic Thai dish, Thom Kha Gai, or Chicken Coconut Milk Soup. It uses almost none of the actual Thai ingredients, such as kaffir lime leaves, galangal and lemon grass (not available locally and definitely not available locally. Lemon grass IS actually available now, yay!) But like the real version, it is made creamy through the addition of coconut milk, which also gives it a wonderful tropical taste.

Sweet Potatoes are a healthy option in any dish, full of fiber and containing plenty of vitamins B, C and D. They are one of my favorite vegetables (there are few vegetable I don't enjoy), and can be very versatile. Originally when I viewed the recipe I had imagined a blended sweet potato soup, without visible chunks of potato - but let's be honest here, using the blender creates nothing but more mess to clean up. (My least favorite part of the cooking experience - afterwards!) Leaving the sweet potato in chuck form will look a bit odd, but it is actually more authentic to real Thai dishes.

A good Thai inspired dish, like this one, should touch upon four of our taste bud senses: sweet, savory, spicy and sour. Combining all of these together is a part of what makes Thai food so unique and exotic to our western-cooking adapted taste buds. Typical American cooking usually has at most two of these senses, rarely three. (Think of Chile con Carne, for example. Lots of flavors and spices, right? Well, no, not when you give it the flavor sense test: there's just two, savory and spicy. Some chile recipes add enough sugar to give it a sweet taste, too, bringing the potential total up to three. I wonder what a Four-Senses Chile con Carne would be like?) This recipe hits all four senses - curry for the spicy, broth for the savory, coconut milk for the sweet, and lemon juice for the sour. (One of my four senses above is not actually a part of the traditional 'taste bud senses'. Do you know what the fourth one really is?)

Since we are aiming for healthy, I pair this with brown rice. Make your rice sticky by adding extra water. I use what I call my 'Rule of Thumb' for sticky brown rice - literally stick your thumb into the rice cooker bowl as you fill it up, keeping the tip of the digit right at the rice, not down into it. When the water reaches the joint in your thumb, you've got enough! Also, brown rice should ideally be allowed to soak for about a half-an-hour before cooking. An alternative is to mix in a bit of white rice, to make it seem softer. If making just white rice, place your pinky into the bowl when filling. When the water reaches the first pinky joint, stop. (Using the thumb will result in rice pudding.) Thanks to this method, I never use measuring cups, and it works perfectly, every time.

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Thai Curried Coconut Milk Soup w/ Sweet Potato

by July-24-2012

A simple, easy-to-find ingredients recipe that gives a taste of exotic Thailand

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 pounds (about 3 small sized yams) orange-fleshed sweet potatoes
• 1 TBS vegetable oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 TBS ginger
• 1 TBS red curry powder
• 1 15 oz. can unsweetened coconut milk
• 3 cups vegetable broth
• 3 1/2 TBS lemon juice
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1 TBS toasted seasame oil

Instructions

Poke sweet potatoes on all sides with fork, then wrap in saran wrap. Microwave on high until cooked through (about 12 minutes.) Place in fridge to cool. When cool enough to handle, remove skins and slice into 1" chunks.Heat the oil in a large saucepan or soup pot over medium heat. Add the onion and ginger, cook and stir until tender, about 5 min. Stir in the curry and heat for 1 min, then whisk in the coconut milk and vegetable broth. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer about 5 min.Add sweet potatoes to the soup and cook for 5 more min so they can soak up the flavor. Stir in lemon juice and season with salt. Ladle into bowls and garnish with a drizzle of sesame oil.Serve with sticky rice.

Details

Prep time: 20 mins Cook time: 15 mins Total time: 35 mins Yield: 4 servings