Quick vegan Thai coconut soup (tom kha)

Do you ever feel as though you give your best to your 9-5 job and after that, you have nothing left to give? It’s one of the reasons I’ve taken three years to revisit this recipe. My weeknights are a write-off and life admin patiently awaits for me on the weekend. Once my life admin and house chores have been taken care of, there’s hardly any weekend left apart from a small amount of time to recharge (to make it through until the next weekend). The cycle just keeps cycling on.

As I write this on day three of a four-day weekend, I’m feeling disorientated. I don’t know how to spend this time. To me, life sometimes feels like a to-do list you can’t get through.

So, I’m not a soup girl, but here I am again with another soup. I don’t know why. Maybe you can chalk it up to this state of limbo (or maybe because my recipe for hot cross buns didn’t quite pan out in time for Easter and this was the next thing that popped into my head). My vegan tom yum quickly turned into tom kha (Thai coconut soup) with the addition of a little more coconut milk and a tablespoon of tahini. You read that correctly, I swapped out miso for tahini. I try to avoid eating soy products more than 2-3 times a week and when I do, I try to restrict it to only what’s essential (like tofu or gluten-free soy sauce, for example).

Back to the recipe – if you have everything on hand, you can knock this one out of the park in less than 30 mins. It’s almost too easy.

Thai coconut soup
Serves 2

2 garlic cloves, grated
2 stalks of lemongrass, mashed in a mortar and pestle
1 thumb-sized piece of ginger, grated
1 small chilli, sliced
1/2 cup sliced and dried shiitake mushrooms
2 cups vegetable stock
270g coconut milk
1 tbsp tahini
1 tbsp maple syrup
2 tbsp gluten-free soy sauce
150g fresh enoki mushrooms
1 lime, juiced
Large handful coriander, finely chopped
200g rice noodles, cooked
1 sheet of nori, cut into small pieces (optional)
Cooked tofu squares (optional)

Add garlic, lemongrass, ginger and chilli to a saucepan on a medium heat. Cook until fragrant and starting to catch on the bottom of the pan. Add the dried shiitake mushrooms and the vegetable stock and gently simmer for five minutes.

Whisk in the coconut milk and simmer for 10 minutes before whisking in the tahini, maple syrup and gluten-free soy sauce, and simmer another five minutes.

Remove from the heat and add enoki mushrooms, lime juice and coriander. Add cooked rice noodles into a bowl, and top with the soup and mushrooms. Add some of the nori pieces and tofu (if using) and some lime slices.