Tag Archives: Thai

Thai-Spiced Sweet Potato and Cashew Soup

28 Feb

Here’s a recipe for something a little different! It comes from the MediterrAsian.com blog.

I confess I used salted roasted cashews — and the soup was a little on the salty side. So use unsalted it you can, especially if you don’t like a lot of salt.

I also confess I used the whole can of coconut milk because I didn’t have anything planned to use the remaining amount after I used a cup and saved a little for garnish. I don’t think this was a bad thing. The soup was really tasty!

I pureed the soup using an immersion blender. It worked great on the sweet potatoes but it was hard to get every last cashew ground up this way. Using a blender or food processor might be a little messier, but it would probably do a better job.

If you don’t have cilantro or don’t like the taste, use a little parsley for garnish.

Ingredients:

1 Tbs. peanut oil
2 scallions, roughly chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1½ Tbs. Thai red curry paste
28 oz. sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into cubes
5 cups stock: vegetable or fake chicken
1 cup coconut milk, plus 4 Tbs. for garnish
½ cup roasted unsalted cashews, plus extra for garnish
3 Tbs. fish Suce
2 tsp. brown sugar
1 Tbs. lemon juice
1 Tbs. fresh chopped cilantro for garnish

Directions:

Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the scallions and cook, stirring occasionally, for 2 minutes. Add the garlic and curry paste and cook, stirring constantly for 1 minute.

Add the stock, sweet potato, coconut milk, cashews, fish sauce and brown sugar, stir to combine and bring to a boil.

Reduce the heat to medium and simmer, covered, for 15 minutes. Remove from the heat and allow to cool a little.

Puree the soup in two batches in a blender or food processor until smooth. Return to the saucepan to reheat and stir in the lemon juice.

Serve in bowls with a swirl of extra coconut milk, and garnish with cilantro and reserved cashews.

Serves 6 to 8

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Thai-Spiced Sweet Potato Soup

28 Jan

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Here’s an absolutely delicious soup from my recipe blogger friends at MediterrAsian.com. It’s smooth and creamy without being heavy (because it uses coconut milk instead of cream), and it has lots of beta carotene and fiber.

“Thai-spiced” here means flavorful, not spicy.

The recipe calls for 8 oz. of coconut milk, plus a little more for garnish. The can had 13.5 oz. What was I going to do with a half-cup of leftover coconut milk? I just threw it all in.

The original recipe calls for chopped cilantro on top. We don’t like cilantro, so we used chopped scallions. You could also use chives or parsley. And I whizzed it with an immersion blender. I used chopped cashews on the top, but then I noticed that the MediterrAsian folks used whole cashews for garnish. I also had roasted salted cashews on hand so I used those, and the soup was not at all salty, so if that’s what you’ve got, I say use ’em!.

Ingredients:

1 Tbs. peanut oil
2 scallions, roughly chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1½  Tbs. Thai red curry paste
28 oz. (800g) sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
5 cups chicken or vegetable stock
1 cup coconut milk, plus 4 Tbs. for garnish
½  cup roasted unsalted cashews, plus extra for garnish
3 Tbs. fish sauce
2 tsp. brown sugar
1 Tbs. lemon juice
1 Tbs. finely chopped cilantro for garnish (or parsley or scallion or chives)

Directions:

Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the scallions and cook, stirring occasionally, for 2 minutes. Add the garlic and curry paste and cook, stirring constantly, for 1 minute.

Add the sweet potato, stock, coconut milk, cashews, fish sauce and brown sugar, stir to combine, and bring to a boil.

Reduce the heat to low and simmer, covered, for 15 to 20 minutes, until the sweet potatoes are very soft. Remove from the heat and cool a little.

Puree the soup until smooth in two batches in a blender or food processor, or use an immersion blender.

Return to the pot to reheat, and stir in the lemon juice.

Serve in bowls with a swirl of the reserved coconut milk, and garnish with cilantro (or parsley, scallion or chives) and reserved cashews.

Serves 4 to 6

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Edamame Succotash

28 Mar

Once upon a time, when I still worked in an office, the HR people brought in a chef who worked on behalf of our health insurer so that he could give us tips on healthy eating. He not only gave us the healthy eating tips — presumably this would lower our insurer’s cost for our medical care — but he also did a cooking demo and left us with some great recipes. This salad wowed everyone, and I’ve made it several times since. It’s got an interesting combination of flavors  and all the different colors make it very pretty. And it’s very easy to make if you start with frozen edamame and corn and jarred peppers!

Ingredients:

1 ripe mango, cubed
1 package (16 oz.) frozen shelled edamame, thawed
2 cups fresh or frozen corn, thawed
1 cup dried cranberries
½ cup raw or roasted red peppers, diced (you can use jarred roasted red peppers)
2 Tbs. Thai sweet red chili sauce
⅛– ¼ tsp. Thai red curry paste
1 Tbs. mirin or seasoned rice vinegar
1½ Tbs. toasted sesame oil
Salt & pepper to taste

Directions:

Combine the mango, edamame, corn, cranberries and peppers in a bowl.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the chili sauce, curry paste, vinegar, sesame oil, salt and pepper. Pour the dressing over the vegetables and toss to coat.

Serves 6 to 8

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