Thai Mushroom Soup with basil & olive bread

Benri is back! At last a dish I feel is more than worthy of a post.

As I mentioned in a previous reply to a comment, Andy gave me a cookbook (one by the Weightwatchers team) as part of a birthday gift. I don’t think it was because he thinks I need to lose weight (I hope not) or I need more practice (which I do) or thinks my style of cooking doesn’t meet his expectations (his mmms & ahhhs confirms he’s satisfied). We have always enjoyed the recipes from the weightwatchers books as they are usually full of variety, so perhaps he is worrying I run out of ideas and stop cooking for him, so this gesture may be a gentle nudge to keep on doing what I’m doing.

I have been dying to get back into the kitchen for weeks. I was beginning to feel like I was going to burst if I didn’t get a post out there soon. Is that sad? Do I yearn for the life of blogging more than I do the outside world? I’m pretty new to this world of blogging, which I have found can be quite addictive. I’m quite happy to make it become a part of my life. However, not my life. What I love about blogging is the thought of other people loving and talking about the same interests I have. I just want to share what I love. One thing I do need to do is post more often. I’m thinking perhaps twice a week will be more doable.

Being so far away from close friends really does influence more activity on the net. If I can’t feed them, I feel the next best thing is to share what I feed myself in this blog and talk about it.

I love this hobby and it’s here to stay.

Anyway, before I run off the point, which is my last nights dinner; a creamy Thai mushroom soup served with basil and olive yeast free buns and a tomato side salad.

This one wasn’t taken from the book. It was only inspired by a recipe title in the book. I suppose you can say the ingredients share a similarity, but the taste is on a different level. A lot more to my liking. I also just wanted to use up what I had in the fridge. I’m terrible at following recipes actually. I always seem to be missing then substituting ingredients.

Due to the coconut milk this version isn’t as low in calories as the weight watchers recipe, but it still oozed fresh delicious nutritiousness (is that even a word? Well it works for me).

This one is a keeper. I hope you like it. If you’d like to check out the original recipe which caught my attention, I’ll post it in a comment below this recipe.

Creamy Thai Mushroom Soup

Ingredients;

• 1/2 a tin of coconut milk topped up with water making one pint
• 1 cup soy beans (or any white bean)
• 200g mushrooms (a mixture of your choice)
• 1 tbsp red Thai curry paste
• The juice of one lemon/lime/1tbsp rice vinegar/1tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 2 plump cloves of garlic
• 1 red onion
• 1 tbs olive oil
• 1 sachet of konbu dashi/ 1 1/2 tsp

Directions:

1. In a medium sized sauce pan, saute the chopped onion and garlic in the olive oil until the onion is translucent
2. add a little water to avoid sticking
3. add the beans
4. add the chopped mushrooms stir the contents together.
5. mix the Thai paste, coconut milk, water & Konbu together
6. pour into the sauce pan
7. bring to the boil then turn to low and simmer for 5 to 10 minutes.
8. In the mean time prepare your side salad
9. I used 2 chopped tomatoes, 2 cup of chopped spinach and salad leaves, 3 chopped umeboshi (pickled plums) and 2 green onions, chopped.
10. The bread recipe is below
11. When the soup is ready stir through the lemon juice
12. blend the soup in batches then return to the sauce pan and heat through before serving in warm bowls.

Yeast Free Bread Buns

Ingredients: (serves 4)

• 2 cups of all purpose flour
• 2tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1tsp salt
• 5 chopped green olives
• 4 tbsp chopped fresh basil
• 1tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 -3/4 cup water

Directions:

1. sieve the flour, baking powder,soda,salt together in a medium sized mixing bowl.
2. add the basil
3. make a well in the center of the flour and mix in the water little by little until it forms a dough and the texture is a little gluey.
4. transfer the dough onto a floured surface then separate into 4 equal parts and form into small bun shapes.
5. grease the rice cooker pan with some of the olive oil
6. insert the buns
7. brush the buns with the rest of the olive oil
8. close the rice cooker lid and set on cake for 45mins.
9. When they are done, crisp them up a little under the grill before serving. (best served hot)

Red Thai Curry Paste ~krung Kaeng Phed