Thai Noodle Soup

Thai Soup. This is an excellent replacement for Ramen! I usually put some Sriracha in my Ramen to make it spicy, and it really tastes great. However, who knows what is in that $0.25 bag of noodles and powder. Mostly, it just has a whole lot of salt. Full disclosure: I just used a bunch of vegetables I'd picked up for general use, so this isn't really true Thai cooking

In this preparation, I used the following ingredients:

2 oz - Linguini Noodles
3 cups - Water
(or substitute 2 cups unsweetened, lite coconut milk with 1 cup water)
1/4" - Fresh Ginger
1/2 cup - chopped onion, sauteed
1 clove - Garlic
1 handful - snow peas
9 squirts - Fish Sauce (can substitute Soy Sauce or a couple pinches of salt)
2 heaping tsp's - Roasted Red Curry Paste
1 heaping tsp - Chili Garlic Sauce
2 to 3 - Crimini Mushrooms, chopped however you like
6 small - Brussels Sprouts

Prep + Cook Time: 10 - 15 Minutes

 ...and here's how you do it!




1.) Sautee your garlic and onion in a sauce pan (small pot). Remove the onion and garlic mixture and set it aside.

These are just hangin' out for now...

Don't forget to invite your favorite Sous Chef.

Heat it up! On Med-High.

Onion and garlic, sautee'd and set aside.

 2.) Put your water into that sauce pan and bring it to a boil. Coconut milk will add a great mouth feel and a really savory atmosphere to the dish. If you go this route (which I definitely suggest), I'd add 1 extra tsp of red curry paste to compensate for the coconut milk's soothing of the curry spice. If you don't want it to be really spicy, leave the recipe as is. Add your ginger. 
Note: I tend to keep ginger on hand, in the freezer, for whenever I need it. Then all I do is grate it into the water for Thai soups! No need to thaw it or anything.

After sautee'ing the onion and taking it out, the water will take up some of that de-glazed goodness.

Bring it to a boil.

 3.) Add your pasta and cook. Set the timer for the suggested cooking time. It was 7 to 9 minutes for my brand/type of pasta.

Add your pasta.

7 to 9 minutes for my linguine.

Set a timer!

 4.) Around the half way point, add your onion/garlic mixture, as well as the Garlic Chili Sauce, Mushrooms, Brussels sprouts, fish sauce and curry paste.

Onion/garlic mixture, check!

Add your Garlic Sauce! 1 (heaping) tsp. This stuff is amazing. Double check!

Add your mushrooms and Brussels sprouts.

Add 6-9 squirts of fish sauce. It comes out of the bottle like soy sauce.

2 (heaping) tsp's of this roasted red curry paste.

 This curry paste is a little sweeter and smokier than regular red curry paste. If you want your soup to be spicier, I suggest trading this for regular red curry paste (I just happened to have the roasted kind).

5.) 1 minute before your pasta is fully cooked to your liking, add the snow peas. This will assure they have a bit of crunchy texture when they get to your bowl.

Simmer down for another minute or so.

Enjoy!

These proportions allowed me two good sized bowls of soup. Each bowl is only 200 calories. If you decided to put coconut milk in it, it only goes up to 325 calories, and it is so good (and still vegetarian)! This dish ended up being mildly spicy, a little bit sweet, and a whole lot delicious and these ingredients just happened to be lying around, so don't feel too obligated to certain vegetables. The Brussels sprouts weren't "thai" food at all, but they ended up really good, meaty components that were well steamed inside and very tender. If you don't tend to like them, maybe this will be your new favorite preparation!