Tuesday, August 11, 2015

RECIPE: Quick Coconut and Shrimp Soup

School starts in less than two weeks here in Maryland and I can't believe how fast the summer has flown. Seems like it was only yesterday I was promising myself I was going to write/blog more but considering my last post was back on July 3rd you see how well that's going!

But with school approaching that means getting back into the swing of things, re-embracing getting up earlier, and even trying to have dinner ready at a reasonable hour so my daughter doesn't look like a zombie because dinner prep took two hours, not the 29 minutes stated in the recipe.

While I usually eschew soups in the summer, the site of some fresh local squash at the grocery store – coupled with a pound of shrimp in the freezer – got me in the mood for a cheap weeknight dinner of a coconut soup with some shrimp.

I used this recipe as my jumping off point, though I made some revisions:
  • 1 can organic lite coconut milk
  • 1/2 can full fat coconut milk
  • 1 cup chicken bullion
  • 1 cup water
  • 2 tsps. ground, prepared ginger
  • 2 tsps. fresh lime juice 
  • 1 tbsp. fish sauce
  • 4 large fresh basil leaves, rough chopped
  • 1 lb. extra large shrimp (21-25 count), shelled
  • 1 large yellow squash, 1 large green squash cut into noodles
  • Sriracha to taste
Combine the coconut milk, bullion (you can use chicken stock but I didn't have any handy), water, ginger and basil in a medium pot over medium high heat until boiling. Reduce to a simmer and add lime juice and fish sauce. Stir, add shrimp and simmer about five minutes until shrimp are pink and firm. Add a mix of "noodles" to the bottoms of the bowls and ladle soup and shrimp atop noodles. Add Sriracha to taste.

I originally intended to add the Sriracha to the soup while it simmered but completely spaced at the end (I'll blame the Anchor Steam Summer Wheat) so we just added a splash to each bowl "to taste". My new spiral slicer did exactly what I wanted with the squash, but I would probably add them to the soup about halfway through the shrimp cooking time so they were a touch less raw and my wife suggested more basil next time.

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