Thai Coconut Soup with Mushrooms

Thai Coconut Soup with Mushrooms

Mushroom lovers will adore this light and wonderfully fragrant Thai-spiced soup made with fresh and dried mushrooms. And cooks will love the simplicity. The freshness of the broth is enhanced by preparing fresh coconut milk from dried grated coconut, but you can use light coconut milk from a can as well. When you smell the broth cooking you will be very glad it doesn't take long to cook.

This is my contribution to this month's mushroom-focused edition of No Croutons Required.

Thai Coconut Soup with MushroomsThai Coconut Soup with Mushrooms
Recipe by
Adapted from World Vegetarian Classics: Over 200 Essential International Recipes for the Modern Kitchen
Cuisine: Thai
Published on April 15, 2008

Simple, fragrant, elegant and fresh-tasting light Thai mushroom soup with lemongrass, ginger and fresh pressed coconut milk

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Ingredients:
  • 2 1/2 cups dried grated unsweetened coconut
  • 5 cups boiling water
  • 1/2 to 2/3 cup dried mixed wild mushrooms
  • 2 lemongrass stalks, trimmed
  • 1 1/2 inch piece fresh ginger or galangal, minced or grated
  • 2 tablespoons tamari (soy) sauce
  • 2 teaspoons brown sugar
  • 2/3 cup button mushrooms, chopped
  • juice from 1 small lemon (2 tablespoons)
  • 1 teaspoon sea salt, or to taste
  • small handful of fresh cilantro or parsley, chopped
Instructions:
  • Cover the coconut with 5 cups of boiling water in a large bowl. Leave to cool to room temperature. When cool, press the coconut through a sieve, taking care to extract as much coconut milk as possible. You should have about 4 cups of coconut milk.

  • (Alternately, use 4 cups of canned light coconut milk — about 2 1/2 14 oz cans.)

  • Soak the dried mushrooms in a small bowl of hot water for 20 minutes. Drain and reserve the soaking liquid, squeezing out as much liquid from the soaked mushrooms as you can. Chop and set aside.

  • Bring the coconut milk to a boil in a large saucepan with the lemongrass, ginger or galangal, tamari sauce and sugar. Reduce the heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes.

  • Add the fresh and soaked dried mushrooms along with a few tablespoons of the reserved mushroom soaking liquid. Bring to a boil again, then reduce the heat to low and simmer for 3 to 4 minutes or until the fresh mushrooms are tender but still plump.

  • Remove from heat and discard the lemongrass. Add the lemon juice and salt, and taste for seasoning.

  • Serve hot, garnished with fresh chopped cilantro or parsley.

Makes 4 servings
Thai Coconut Soup with Mushrooms

9 comments:

test it comm said...

Coconut milk and mushrooms sounds like an interesting combo. Just look at all of the flavours in this soup. I will have to try it.

Jessy and her dog Winnie said...

What a delightful combination!

Poonam said...

I can only imagine the flavors of this soup! A great combination!

Anonymous said...

This looks delicious! I've been thinking about my entry too long now - I've got to make it tomorrow! I love the idea of coconut and mushrooms, I want to make your soup it sounds scrumptious.

Neen said...

That does look elegant. Is tamari sauce related to tamarind? We've got the coconut ingredients in the cupboard and the mushrooms in the fridge, so this may get replicated sooner than you think!

Lisa Turner said...

Neen, I do urge you to try it. I loved it. Tamari is essentially soy sauce, only much better for you. I've discussed it briefly in this post.

Lucy said...

Lemongrass and coconut milk are the foods of the gods. Wouldn't have thought to pair them with mushrooms, but it's a great combination.

Anonymous said...

Creative.

I never saw this mushroom recipe in china. I sometimes cook mushroom with tofu and egg to make a soup. That's great too. www.kitchenware-info.com contains many usefull kithen gadgets that you can have a check.

Maggie said...

This sounds great! Similar to hot and sour soup with coconut. I'm going to have to try it.