Thai Inspired Soup

I am working once again on very little sleep. I called in this morning to see if I could take a personal day and the girl who answered the phone clearly didn't know what she was talking about.

"Hello"

"Hi, Mommy"

"Hi, I was just calling in because my kids kept me up all night, and seeing as I've worked nonstop for the past four years I was wondering if it was ok if I took the day off to get some rest"

"Mommy do you know what sound a bagpipe makes? It goes...beeeeeeeeeeaaawwaaaarrrrraaaaaaaaaaaahhh. It's pretty much my favorite sound"

this is where I started suspecting that she may have no authority to give me the day off

"Do you have a manager I could speak too"

"Bagpipe starts with B...buh buh Beee"

*crickets*
At this point I noticed the girl in question was talking into a plastic banana instead of a phone, clearly this conversation was going nowhere.

We reached a compromise though. I get to wear my pj's all day, and we are going to have canned soup and sandwiches for dinner because they require minimal effort. Also there will be much time cuddling on the couch with a story book. This job has it's perks.

What does that have to do with this soup....nothing. Thanks for putting up with it. I guess what I'm saying is if you notice extra typos, grammatical errors and confusing steps, it's only because my editor** has taken a leave of absence due to lack of sleep. :)

Here's that recipe you have all been waiting for.....right? It's a mild flavored soup that is full of summery ingredients like corn, yellow pepper, lemon and cilantro. It has almost no heat, you can surely up the amount of curry paste if you want a spicy soup. This recipe makes a lot, but I think it tastes even better the next day. It's excellent over cilantro rice. There are a lot of ingredients in here, don't be alarmed, you may be surprised just how many you have on hand.

served over cilantro rice. Yum!

1tbs oil
6 cloves of pressed garlic
2 tsp minced ginger
2 tbs vegetarian oyster sauce*
1 1/2 tbs brown sugar
3 tsp soy sauce
1 tbs Thai green curry paste
1 yellow bell pepper sliced into strips
1 potato scrubbed and diced
8oz extra firm organic pre-diced tofu...It will be packed in water, drain it thoroughly
1 cup frozen corn
4 cups of veggie stock
1 can of coconut milk
1 handful of baby spinach
1 handful of cilantro chopped
2 Meyer lemons
salt to taste

Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the next six ingredients (from garlic to curry paste) and stir.

Add the pepper, tofu, and potato. Cook for five minutes. Then flip and cook for five more minutes. The potatoes should be tender.

Add the corn and veggie stock. Bring it to a boil.

Boil until the potatoes are done.

Lower the heat and add the coconut milk, spinach, cilantro and the juice of the two lemons. Heat through and add salt to taste.

Serve over cilantro rice if desired. I made this recipe and switched the white rice for brown, so the cooking times and proportions were different, but the flavors were still the same. It was fantastic, use whatever type of stock you desire. I think I may have also doubled the garlic....I do that.

*This is vegetarian oyster sauce, I believe I have also seen it called mushroom stirfry sauce. I'm not thrilled with all of the ingredients. Definitely a sometimes food. It adds a depth of flavor to Thai dishes that I have not been able to duplicate without using it. Find it Asian grocery stores.



** Editor, being my brain....she isn't really that great of an editor to begin with, but she's better than nothing.

Sorry about the funky font sizes, I was having trouble editing this. All the computer's fault I'm sure. In no way has to do with my lack of sleep. :)

Sushi Rice Bowl

The weather here lately has been sooooo nice*. And by nice I mean you just want to get up in the morning, run outside, and DIE of heatstroke. The last thing I want to do in this sort of weather is cook.....the first thing I want to do is lie half naked under a ceiling fan sipping on a Jamba Juice....but since we don't have Jamba Juice here, and I live with other people that's not going to happen....Everybody good and hungry? :)

Back to the point (I totally have one)....which is, this is a super yummy cold dish that I've eaten two days in a row for lunch. It's basically brown sushi rice mixed with chickpeas, sauteed peppers and onion, avocado, and then I drizzled mustard wasabi dressing over the whole thing. Today I garnished mine with pickled ginger, and green onion.

Three fantastic things about this dish, you can make as much or as little of the components as you want and serve it several days in a row. You can change it up quite a bit and still have it taste quite good, throw in whatever you have on hand, leftover steamed veggies, maybe some carrot or cucumber sticks for more of a salad feel. And you can serve it without the dressing to keep it soy free, as I did for my son. Short on time? Try using a store bought organic salad dressing such as this.


Mustard Wasabi Dressing

5 tbs oil (I used canola)
3 tbs seasoned rice vinegar
3 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp minced ginger
1 tsp mustard
1 1/2 tsp + more to taste prepared wasabi

Whisk all the ingredients together. This doesn't make a lot of dressing, but considering how little of it you need (I used about a tbs) it should do the trick.





*It's called sarcasm...love it, embrace it.