Megan makes Nigella's "left-over chicken thai soup" vegan.

Howdy,

Well winter seems to be making an early arrival here in Australia's national capital.  Minimum temperatures are getting below freezing, mornings have that beautiful winter-wonderland frosty look.  It's getting cold.  Also I'm back in the office beavering away at my day-job.  Saying it's a bit busy would be an understatement!  That's how I like to work though, I tend to do better with a bit of deadline-pressure.

I got home from work the other night wanting a dinner that was quick, easy, tasty and warming.  I thought it would be time to make Nigella's left-over chicken thai soup vegan. 

Thai cooking lends itself really well to vegan and vegetarian cooking.  Most Thai restaurants list their curries on their menu with options to have the dish either with tofu, vegetables, meat or fish.  I say hi to the feline residents, but they politely decline to join me in the kitchen today.  They're camped out on my bed having a snooze and do not wish to be disturbed.  So I get out of my suit ASAP, slip into something a little more snuggly and start cooking.

I am warm and comfortable, your argument is invalid.

Nigella wants me to start off by heating up one liter of chicken stock in a pot. 

I don't quite start off the same way Nigella does.  I can't use some of the Asian seasoning Nigella uses such as fish sauce; so I want to give the spices I can use the best chance to make this dish as flavoursome as possible. 

I start off by heating 2tsp of crushed chilli, 1tsp crushed ginger, 1tsp of crushed garlic and 2tbs of lime juice in a pot.  I'm not adding any oil to this as later on I'll be putting some coconut cream in the soup, which will add plenty of texture, and allow any fat-soluble flavours to be well and truly dissolved into the mix.

Yet another occasion I wish you could smell this blog.

While that's heating, I take about half a packet of mung-bean vermicelli noodles and place them in a large bowl.  Turn on the kettle to boil some water.  These noodles will cook just by soaking in the hot water.  They're great to take camping, or for any time you want to have something cooked with minimum time, effort or equipment.

Once the spices smell really good, I add 2 cups (500ml) of vegetable stock and 2tsp of tamarind paste.  This is less stock than Nigella used, but I'm cooking a smaller quantity of soup than she did.  My plan is to make 2 servings, one for me and one for my freezer.  I haven't scaled down the tamarind paste, as I want the dish to taste very tangy which is what the tamarind will do.  The tamarind paste you can buy in the jar is easier to use than the hard preserved tamarind you buy in plastic bags at a deli or other food store.

By this time the kettle has boiled, so I pour enough water over the mung bean noodles to cover them and leave them to soak for a few minutes.  I then get to work chopping some green vegetables to add to my soup.  I use a bunch of spinach (leaves and stalk) and a baby bok-choy.  Just about any leafy green will do.

Foreground: Chopped spinach.  Background: mung bean vermicelli noodles soaking away

At this point Nigella fetches her left-over roast chicken from the fridge and pops it into the soup.  This is all going to cook very quickly, in a matter of minutes.  I decide I want this dish to be fairly light, so don't go for any of the commercially available meat substitutes.  I'm keeping this one very simple, and substituting some sliced button mushrooms in place of the chicken. 

After the mushrooms go in (I used three, but that's mainly because that's how many were in my fridge) I then pop open a can of coconut milk and pour it in.  My can was 270g size.

While I'm waiting for the mushrooms to cook a little, I drain the mung-bean noodles and pour them into the soup pot.  I place the spinach stalks in first, stirring the soup to get them right through the mix.  I float the spinach leaves on top of the soup, to let them steam and wilt a bit before stirring through.

I then chop about 1/3 of a bunch of coriander and 2 red chillies (I love chilli and hot flavors if your palate is more sensitive than mine you can reduce the amount of chilli to suit your personal preference) while waiting for the spinach to wilt a bit.  I then turn off the heat, stir the spinach leaves through the soup.I then quickly stir through the coriander and chilli, then ladle out my serving.

Making this soup vegan wasn't a huge challenge at all and I feel I kept with the spirit of the recipe by using 'left over' vegetables in my fridge rather than going to the shop to buy something specially to cook.

The whole dinner from walking into the kitchen to walking out of the kitchen took me a grand total of fifteen minutes, so it's an absolute win for a week-night meal.


I'm happy with how this one turned out, I'd be comfortable to make it for visiting friends.  Give it a go and let me know how it worked out for you.