Hot and Sour Mushroom Soup

Spicy Thai cuisine is probably my next favorite after Indian cooking. Oddly enough, I have rarely cooked authentic Thai food, opting instead for take out from Thai Taste, my favorite Thai restaurant in London. I suppose that is one of the reasons I chose Thai soups and salads for the theme for this month's No Croutons Required; this challenge inspired me to come up with a Thai meal in addition to getting some lovely ideas from fellow bloggers.

I always prefer to make my own spice blends and sauces, and so I made a fresh Nam Prik Sauce in preparation for the soup. You will end up with more than you need for this recipe but this sauce would be good served over egg noodles or with some fresh or lightly cooked vegetables.

This recipe is adapted from Thai Vegetarian Cooking by Vatcharin Bhumichitr. I will have more to say about this amazing cookbook in future, which contains 130 recipes for authentic salads, appetizers, snacks, soups, curries, desserts and much more. The book contains extensive photographs, helpful explanations of ingredients used in Thai cooking and a fascinating snapshot of the country and its cooking traditions.

I served this soup along with Massaman Curry.

Hot and Sour Mushroom Soup

For the Nam Prik Pow Sauce:

6 red or green chilies, seeded
2 large garlic cloves, peeled and roughly chopped
2 shallots, peeled and roughly chopped
1 medium tomato
1 green eggplant or a baby purple eggplant
juice from one small lemon
2 tablespoons of tamari sauce
1/2 teaspoon of sea salt
1/2 teaspoon of sugar

For the Soup:

3 cups of vegetable stock
2 teaspoons of Nam Prik Pow sauce
1 inch piece of lemon grass, finely chopped
3 kaffir lime leaves, roughly chopped (or a teaspoon of lemon zest)
2 tablespoons of tamari sauce
1 teaspoon of sugar
juice from one small lemon
14 grams of dried mushrooms, soaked for 20 minutes in hot water and drained
approximately 2 cups of oyster mushrooms, roughly chopped
3 green chilies, seeded and finely chopped

coriander leaves to garnish - optional

Begin by making the Nam Prik sauce. Wrap the chilies, garlic, shallots, tomato and eggplant in foil and roast under the broiler until they begin to soften - roughly 30 minutes. Transfer to a food processor, along with the lemon juice, tamari, salt and sugar and pulse to combine.

To make the soup, in a large pot, bring the vegetable stock to a boil. Stir in the Nam Prik sauce. Add the remaining ingredients and simmer over medium low heat until the mushrooms are just cooked. Garnish with fresh coriander leaves if desired.

Serves 4.

Other Asian recipes from Lisa's Vegetarian Kitchen to try:
Miso Seaweed Broth with Mushrooms and Carrots
Yunnan Stir-Fried Azuki Beans and Green Pepper
Miso Soup with Wild Mushrooms
Oseng Oseng Tempe

On the top of the reading stack: Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, Book 2) by Suzanne Collins

Audio Accompaniment: Consciousness by Windy and Carl