Tom Kha Veggie Soup, Thai Coconut Soup with veggies

I am a soup girl for dinner and you all know that. I love, love, love Thai soups as they are so comforting. The aromas and the fragrance of the soup makes it perfect for winding up after a long day. Thai soups are ambrosial. The distinct flavor that comes from the citrusy ingredients are to die for. The traditional Tom Kha Gai is a soup made with galangal, coconut milk and chicken. We will be doing a veggie version today. Tom Kha Veggie soup with rice makes it a complete meal and will make your dinner a dynamite.

We will be making a very flavorful broth for the soup. Tom Kha literally means galangal soup. So the main flavoring ingredient in the recipe is galangal. Galangal looks like ginger but it has more woody and citrusy notes to it. There aren’t any substitutes that will come close to this ingredient. The other ingredients we will need for the broth are lemon grass and Kaffir lime leaves. Kaffir lime leaves have a very distinctive aroma. The fragrance of each of this ingredient is so unique to Thai food.

First, we will make a broth. The ingredients for the broth needs a little prep. Peel the skin of the galangal and chop them roughly. Set aside. Lemon grass needs to be crushed a little to extract the flavors from it. Take the lemon grass stalk and cut into two inch pieces. Crush each of the piece using the back of a knife or a mallet or any heavy object. Next comes the kaffir lime leaves. They need to be bruised a little. Just tear the lime leaves and try crushing them gently in the palm. The ingredients for the broth are ready.

I like to make the broth in a pressure cooker. I used my 3 liter pressure cooker today. Add in the galangal, lemon grass and kaffir lime leaves along with a cup of water. Cook for 2 whistles on medium flame. It took about 5 minutes in the cooker. Remove from heat and wait for the pressure to settle naturally. The kitchen would smell thai-licious now.

Remove the cooked ingredients using a tong or strain in a colander. Galangal and lemon grass are very hard and its usually not eaten. Once strained, the aromatic broth for the soup is ready.

Add in the veggies and salt to the strained broth and cook in the pressure cooker. Cook for 2 whistles on medium flame. It took about 5 minutes in the cooker. Remove from heat and manually remove the the pressure using a spoon or a fork.

Add in the coconut milk, spring onion, coriander leaves and simmer for a minute. Coconut milk should not be boiled for a long time. Just a mere simmer is enough. Remove from heat and garnish with coriander leaves and kaffir lime leaves.

Serve hot as a soup or as a side dish with rice.

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