Sunday, January 10, 2010

Spicy Tofu Soup with Lemongrass and Lime


This is by no means a traditional soup. I took a recipe I used to make with shrimp and red curry paste and turned it into a spicy tofu with yellow curry paste soup. The important part of this soup is the broth. Once you have that you can add any veggies you like to it.

I like to use mung bean sprouts in this soup when I have them on hand. Sometimes I also add enoki mushrooms, or fresh sliced shitake caps. Other times I will add peanut butter to the broth. It all depends on my mood. Yesterday I added the tofu for protein as I thought we were a little light on that for the day. Here is the soup we had last night.

Spicy Tofu Soup with Lemongrass and Lime
Serves 2

Ingredients:

¼ cup dried mushrooms (I used mixed)
6 cups water
2 stalks of lemon grass
3 kaffir lime leaves, thinly cut
2 tablespoons yellow curry paste (or to taste)
1 lime, zested and juiced
12.3 ounces firm silken tofu, cut into ¼ inch squares
5 leaves bok choy, thinly sliced horizontally
2 green onions, thinly sliced
½ cup snow peas, thinly sliced
4 inches seedless cucumber, thinly julienned

Directions:

Combine the dried mushrooms and water and microwave on high until the water is hot (3 ½ minutes in my microwave). Soak the mushrooms until tender (about 30 minutes). Then drain the mushrooms and soaking liquid through fine wire sieve lined with a damp paper towel or double layer of cheesecloth into a soup pot. Chop the reconstituted mushrooms into bite sized pieces. You want all the contents of the soup to fit on a spoon.

Remove the outer leaves from the lemongrass and then using the back of your knife pound the lemon grass every two inches and place them in the soup pot with the mushroom soaking liquid. Cut the kaffir lime leaves into very thin pieces and add them to the soup pot. Zest and juice the lime into the soup pot. Add the yellow curry paste. Cook for 10 minutes to infuse the broth with the lemongrass. The lemongrass will have given up its flavor when it turns from a fresh green to a khaki color. Now you can remove the lemongrass. Taste the soup for heat and add more yellow curry paste if you need more heat.

Add the silken tofu cubes to the soup and simmer for a few minutes then turn off the heat. Add the remaining veggies so they are warm but still retain some of their texture.

Serve hot.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 194.17
Calories From Fat (29%) - 56.87

Total Fat - 6.4g
Saturated Fat - 0.79g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 118.88mg
Potassium - 877.87mg
Total Carbohydrates - 22.46g
Fiber - 6.25g
Sugar - 4.91g
Protein - 15.54g

Comments:

I love Thai food so I enjoyed the flavors of this soup. My husband is okay with this, but it isn’t his favorite. The citrus flavor can be a little different if you don’t eat a lot of Thai food. Children may not like the unexpected citrus flavor.

Each serving of this soup contains approximately 4,000IU of vitamin A, 55mg of vitamin C, 190mg of calcium, 4.5mg of iron, 65mcg of folate, 25mcg of vitamin K, 245mg of phosphorus, and 100mg of magnesium.

This soup is very low in sodium so you may want to add a little to the top when serving. We have grown so accustomed to low sodium food that it tastes fine to us just as it is. If you have fresh cilantro on hand that would be great floating on top the soup.

Unrelated Note:

Today we are busy getting all those life administrative tasks done that need to be accomplished before it is back to the weekly routine. To make things easier on myself I am making a black bean soup and salad tonight for dinner. Not terribly creative, but also one of those perfect low involvement meals that I have been making a lot more of recently. Sometimes I get in these moods where I am just not feeling terribly inspired. These moods never last long. I should be back to creative cooking in a couple of days. I have a couple of ideas of recipes in my head now that I hope to get to on Monday or Tuesday.

One thing I need to do today is work out grocery list for our first “Ad Hoc at Home” healthy vegan-cooking project. Sue and I will be getting together to cook on Wednesday. There will be photos and recipes of the process on the other blog. As soon as I post something there I will put a link on this blog so you know to check it out.

I hope you are thinking of recipes for the Healthy Cooking Challenge. I have an interesting experiment for next week that I hope is blog worthy. I am going to try to make a healthy low sugar and low sodium vegan gravlax. We will see if that is possible. (fingers crossed)

For now I am off to do a little straightening up, de-cat fuzzing the house and some Pilates. I will be back later with a dinner update. I have a dessert planned with wild blueberries that I think is going to be fabulous. I hope everyone is having a great day and staying warm.

10 comments:

  1. The soup sounds wonderful...I love a lime dimension in things.

    Good luck with the gravlax project...excited to see what you're doing with the wild blueberries.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Rose,

    I love lime too! Sometimes I just take lime and a little agave and serve it with Pellegrino.

    The gravlax is going to be tough one since I am trying to mimic a dry salt and sugar brined salmon without too much salt or sugar. We will see if I can do it. I have an idea, but I have no clue if it will work.

    I should get the blueberry dish posted tonight .... it is very easy but a little different. I hope you like it.

    Alicia

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi, Alicia,

    This looks good! You know, I've never cooked with lemongrass yet, even though I've eaten food prepared with it at restaurants. It's so good, but I think I'm initmidated by it.

    On a side note, are we allowed to post the recipe on our blog that we submit to the challenge? I'm beginning to waver on my commitment, but I may still do it!

    Thank you!

    ReplyDelete
  4. blessedmama,

    Don't let the lemongrass fake you out. It is very easy to use. Just take two exterior leaves off, trim the top and bottom, and give it a bunch of smacks with a knife. It really is that easy in this recipe.

    Thanks for the greate question on the contest. Absolutely you can post the recipe on your blog, please do, with a link to the challenge would be even better. :)

    talk to you later,
    Alicia

    ReplyDelete
  5. Okay, thanks. Now, since I've been blessed to be under your patient tutelage thus far in my infancy of blogging, I have to confess I don't know how to add a link. I've seen it on my new post screen, so I can probably figure it out. But, what is the exact location that I should type in to provide a link to the challenge? I'm asking you here, instead of e-mailing, just in case there's another newbie out there. Thank you!

    ReplyDelete
  6. There is nothing wrong with a stress free meal, and black bean soup sounds pretty tasty if you ask me!

    ReplyDelete
  7. blessedmama,

    Posting a link is easy. You go to the page you want to link to, in this case you would double click on the challenge entry. Then go to the top of the page and copy the address line that starts with http. In this case the address is:

    http://veganepicurean.blogspot.com/2010/01/healthy-cooking-challenge-family.html

    Then within your post you highlight the words you want to be the link, probably "Healthy Cooking Challenge" and then you press "Link/or what looks like two links of a chain -- depending on the version you are using" and paste the address (http:...) into the window.

    Please let me know if isn't clear. I am doing it from memory, so I hope I didn't skip a step, but I don't think so. :)

    Alicia

    ReplyDelete
  8. Heather,

    Thanks! The black bean soup was good. And ... very warming since it is so darn cold here still. I am really looking forward to summer. Heck, right now I am looking forward to early spring! :)

    Alicia

    ReplyDelete
  9. I was just wondering what to do with the tofu I had in my fridge, going to try this out. Sounds good.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Shirley,

    There is also a miso mushroom soup from a couple of weeks ago that uses tofu that you might enjoy. The miso one has a more traditional savory flavor.

    thanks for the comment,
    Alicia

    ReplyDelete

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