Thai Coconut Soup (Tom Kha)

I believe that we've mentioned about this 'shop-once-a month-for-groceries' challenge that we're on. Since the month's end is approaching, we feel pretty good about it. There is no flour/atta left, but we're scraping by :)

But at the same time, it is a TERRIBLE time to be following food blogs. That is because we don't have squat at home while all you folks keep churning out one amazing thing after another! So we can't try out most of the things!

But this particular event, to which this post is dedicated, was deemed too good to miss because we ourselves are trying to appreciate vegan cooking and eating lately. Personally, I just admire vegetarian/vegan daring bakers! Are you kidding me? How could you possibly make such artisan delicacies without using eggs?

Continuing along this vegan theme, this post goes to Priya of Akshayapaatram for ITVW-Thai, conceived by Vaishali of Holy Cow. Both the blogs are terrific.

As mentioned, due to a severe ingredient-crunch, we're sending this very simple Thai coconut soup called Tom Kha for the event. I don't think the name translates into 'coconut soup' but I guess that's what it is called!

Ingredients:

1 cup coconut milk
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 cup firm tofu, drained and cubed
1 tsp red chilli flakes
1 big chunk of ginger (about the size of a tsp)
2 tsp chopped Kaffir lime leaves
1 tsp chopped Thai basil leaves
salt to taste
water to adjust consistency (about 1/4-1/3 cup)

1. Shallow fry the tofu cubes in oil. Set aside.

2. In a deep saucepan, heat the water. When it starts to simmer, add the lime leaves, ginger and Thai basil. Make sure that the heat does not exceed medium-low. Cook for about 5 mins.

2. Slowly add the coconut milk in small batches. Add the chilli flakes and salt. Cook for another 5 mins.

3. Add the fried tofu cubes and cook for another 5 mins.

That is it! A simple creamy soup with a great hint of citrusy flavor. I loved biting into the tofu pieces that were steeped in coconut. The ginger gives a slight zing to it. Obviously, you could vary the amount of spices to suit your palate.

It may sound light but it fills you up pretty good ;) After having this as a starter, we had some Jolada Roti (Sorghum Flour flatbread) with some improvised peanut-tomato chutney. Trust me, I am not very proud of the way I made the chutney but it tasted alright ;)

And since N is hopping behind me because she forgot about CLICK this month, we dug into our picture folder and came up with this. N will possibly not even read this post, but well, I can't win everything at the same time ;)