Thai red curry noodle soup is a very satisfying meal in itself. You can’t beat a nice big bowl of hot spicy, juicy soup to fill you up. Especially when it’s packed with lovely eye catching nutritious veggies. It’s important to have the right veggies though – a bit of colour but that don’t clash with the red curry colour.
Use any of the following, red, green, orange or yellow peppers, courgettes, carrots, baby corn, mange tout or pak choy. You can add mushrooms, but not field ones or large button, as they turn the red a bit turgid. Aubergine is possible as is jack fruit, water chesnuts, green beans, tender stem broccoli & baby plum tomatoes.
You can use a mixture of coconut cream, coconut milk or creamed coconut, but you want to aim for a can and half equivalents. Don’t overdo it on the amount of red curry paste – around 100g or enough to serve 5 ish according to the pack. My prefered brand is Maesri, but there are quite a few others that are almost as good.
As with any dish, it’s adding the things in order of time to cook. So carrots & baby corn in first after the onions, garlic & ginger, then go for the peppers, courgettes etc. Add the mange tout & pak choy towards the end – a little before adding the noodles. You definitly need to add all the liquid well before you add the noodles. I prefer Sainbury’s noodles as they stay intact & separate fairly easily, but Blue Dragon are good too. When you add the wholemeal noodles make sure to separate them from their clumps as quickly as possible. If you don’t, they will stick together into a clumpy unmanageable mess.
Adding some chopped corriander right at the end, shortly before serving this Thai Red Curry Noodle Soup is a winnig move!
Thai Red Curry Noodle Soup with Tofu
Ingredients
- 20 g coconut oil can use rapeseed also but coconut is best
- 2 medium onions – cook in large pan with oil.
- 30 g fresh ginger finely chopped a good thumb sized piece
- 5 cloves garlic approx 25g
- 2 sticks celery optional
- 3 whole finger chillies finger chillies are generally consistent & so easy to judge. You can add 1 or 2 more if you like it hotter
- 100 g Red curry paste - but the thicker one I prefer the Maesri brand - 2 packets
- 600 g coconut milk 1 ½ cans - use full fat
- 50 g coconut cream or creamed coconut 2 ice cubes worth if frozen
- 2 sticks of lemon grass Thai or oriental mini-market
- 2 teasps vegan fish sauce Thai Taste do one
- 1` tbsp palm sugar optional.
- 2 level teaspoons of veg stock
- 2 low salt veg stock cubes
- 1 teasp of garlic powder. optional but adds body
- 1 teasp onion powder optional but adds body
- 2 whole medium carrots – actifry for 8 mins
- 100 g mange tout
- 2 medium orange or yellow pepper red or yellow peppers – actifry for 8 mins
- 2 medium greem courgettes - actifry for 8 mins
- 1 600g cartons of tofu firm tofu
- 100 g baby sweetcorn
- 1 tin of bamboo shoots or water chesnuts optional
- 30 g corriander` usually a small bag or bunch
- 150 g plant pioneers plant based "Chikin" chunks or similar
- 400 g canned tomatoes one standard can
Instructions
- add some coconut oil to a large wok and put on a lowish heat while you peel and crush the garlic & finely chop the ginger. Add to the heated oil. Turn up the heat a little.
- Slice the onions top to bottom in slivers and add to the pan and continue to sauté on a lowish heat. Add a little more oil if needed. Covering the pan helps prevent burning.
- Chop the celery if using in 1cm pieces and add
- Scrub the carrots and chop and peel off any embedded dirt add to the pan.
- add in the chillies
- add in the courgettes and peppers - or cook in an actifry and add later.
- saute the cubed tofu in an actifry - or saute separately . I usually add some soy suace and chilli sauce to add a bit of depth to the flavour.
- When all is starting to soften, add the red curry paste
- stir to incorporate and spread the spices into the veggies allow to heat through.
- tip in the canned tomatoes
- add in the coconut milk, coconut cream & creamed coconut if your using it.
- Now is a good time to put the baby corn into the sauce – cut into 3 pieces –– it want’s around 20 minutes total in the sauce to be tender but not over cooked. Add in any left-over sauteed tomatoes at the same time. I also added my courgettes & peppers that I sauteed separately.
- adding in some mange tout cut in half at the same time.
- Add in the noodle nests you need 250 to 300g depending on numbers eating
- swizzle around with a chopstick to spread them out so they don't congeal into a large lump.
- sauteed tofu going in.
- Also Actifry or pan fry the chicken substitute if you are using that. I did it earlier and added it now.
- It then needs around 10 minutes or so longer in the sauce to complete the cooking. To check the noodles fish one out and taste it. The should be tender, & not firm, but not too soft either or they will break apart when you try to eat them.
