Thai Coconut Chicken Soup
Life is hard; food doesn't have to be #133 [vol4, 5.4]
If there’s one meal that nourishes your body, it’s soup — made with homemade broth. If you haven’t yet learned how to make broth, I wrote this post for you.
The star of this soup is Thai Curry Paste. Because this soup calls for 2c broth and 2 cans coconut milk, it is not too spicy. If you tasted it straight from the tiny jar it might have a kick. It has a wonderful flavor that is different from Indian curry (which is yellow). Find it at most grocery stores, including Kroger and Walmart
My oldest son asked for this soup while he was home. I’ve made it before and there are a million variations to soup. Use what you have or love. Make sure to read the notes at the end.
Thai Coconut Chicken Soup (Bare Bones)
2 cans (14 oz, each) full fat coconut milk
16oz chicken broth, homemade is best
4oz jar Thai chili paste, or less if too spicy (found at Kroger or WalMart in Asian section)
Chicken from 2 fully cooked chicken breasts (or 2 cups cooked chicken, or just shred the whole chicken and have leftovers)
2 lemongrass stalks, juice from 1 lemon, or lemongrass in tube sold @ Kroger
2 cups fresh sliced mushrooms (I blitzed in food processor so they were unrecognizable and haters wouldn’t ask)
2 cups rice (fully cooked), or try cauliflower rice, see below.
Zuzush it up some and add these ingredients:
2 Tbsp Thai fish sauce (I forgot this, but it adds nice umami)
1/2- 1 Tbsp sugar (I omitted)
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 Tbsp fresh grated ginger (I omitted)
1/2 tsp. curry powder
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil, or 1/2 tsp. dried (I omitted)
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
lime juice for garnish
In a large pot, combine coconut milk, chicken broth, ginger, and lemongrass. Bring to a boil. Add cooked chicken, mushrooms, fish sauce, sugar, chili paste, curry powder and cayenne pepper. Reduce heat and simmer for 10-15 minutes. Add lime, cilantro. Salt to taste and garnish with freshly cut basil. Serve over rice.
Cauliflower Rice
3 Tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped (about 1 cup)
4 stalks celery, finely chopped (about 1 cup)
1 large head cauliflower, trimmed and coarsest chopped
1 t sea salt
Directions
Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Sauté onion with some salt for 8-10 mins, until soft and translucent. Add the celery, more salt and sauté for 5 mins. In a food processor, pulse the cauliflower until it is the texture of rice. Add the cauliflower and salt to the skillet, cover, and cook for 15-20 mins, stirring occasionally, until soft.
Notes
I used a whole head of cauliflower (couldn’t find any cauli rice at the store) and had to pull out my food processor and so I decided to blitz everything. The whole head was probably equivalent to 2-3 bags of cauli rice.
I started with a whole onion and 4 stalks of celery in the food processor. Once it was chopped I started it in my pot with butter (olive oil works too). Make sure to salt these veggies in stages as they saute.
The head of cauliflower was quite large so I blitzed in batches. Add more salt as you add to the pot. I blitzed the mushrooms too because some weirdos in my family don’t care for mushrooms but can’t notice if I don’t tell them and they’re chopped small. The mushrooms add wonderful flavor and umami (mouth feel.)
Once the veggies are soft, add the remaining ingredients to the pot. I had chicken cooked from a previous dinner so this soup came together relatively quickly. It was more than 2 cups of chicken — maybe more like 4-5c chicken.
I loved that this soup had such a high concentration of veggies. Because they were blitzed and sautéed first, my children never knew. They just saw the chicken and tasted the yummy flavor and slurped it all up.
Lipstick Has Lead?
Did you hear Julie Andrews will no longer endorse cheap lipstick?
It crumbles easily and makes her breath smell. She explained,
"The super-colored fragile lipstick gives me halitosis."
Lead is a neurotoxin and can be dangerous even at small doses. Experts are clear that any level of lead exposure is unhealthy. I'm confused why our government won't allow lead in paint for walls but is OK with lead in cosmetics...lest I digress...
Lead Exposure Health Concerns
Exposure to lead has been linked to a host of health concerns:
Neurotoxicity: linked to learning, language and behavioral problems.
Reduced fertility in both men and women.
Hormonal changes and menstrual irregularities.
Delayed onset of puberty in girls and development of testes in boys.
Lead in lipstick was presumed an urban legend until 2007, when the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics released a report with results from an independent lab that tested 33 popular brands of lipsticks for lead content. [The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics (CSC) is a program of Breast Cancer Prevention Partners (BCPP), a national science-based advocacy organization working to prevent breast cancer by eliminating environmental exposures linked to the disease.]
The findings:
61 percent of lipsticks contained lead, with levels ranging up to 0.65 parts per million.
Lead-contaminated brands included L’Oreal, Cover Girl and even a tube of Dior Addict.
An expanded FDA study in 2010 found lead in 400 lipsticks at levels up to 7.19 ppm.
Five of the 10 most lead-contaminated brands in the FDA study are made by L’Oreal USA.
One of the reasons I trust Beautycounter is the Never List of 2,800 harmful or questionable ingredients they will never use. AND they assess each and every ingredient against 23 safety endpoints including carcinogenicity and developmental toxicity. Each batch of every color cosmetic product is tested for a suite of heavy metals.
The next time you’re looking to replace lipstick, go for a cleaner version. Beautycounter has 14 shades of longer lasting Satin Lipstick, 10 shades of buildable color called Sheer Genius, 14 shades of lip gloss, and 4 shades of lip balm.
Life is hard, food doesn’t have to be.
Julie
PS - I hope you make this soup! Let me know if you try it. Thanks to Teresa Hernandez for sharing the original recipe with me.