veggie tom kha
This amazing soup might just be your new favorite easy-to-make-on-a-weeknight soup!
Tom Yum is one of my favorite soups because of is intricate flavor profile consisting of: pungent lemongrass, tangy galangal and lime, intoxicating kaffir lime leaves, and spicy red chilies. Adding the creamy coconut milk makes the soup a “Tom Kha” soup. Some people leave the coconut milk out for a more tangy and spicy taste, but I personally prefer for the milk to cut the acidity of this soup.
Unfortunately, the distinct flavors from these specific ingredients cannot be substituted with anything else if you are searching for the authentic flavor of traditional Tom Yum. Trust me, I have tried to leaving out the lime leaves, but the flavor was completely off.
This recipe uses the traditional soup base with the addition of enoki mushrooms because that’s what I had in my fridge. Accompanied with thin rice noodles, the string-like mushrooms paired very well. While red tomatoes are typically used in this dish, I decided to use both red and green tomatoes because my dad just had so many from vegetable garden. The extra tartness from the green tomatoes was the perfect addition to this recipe!
Ingredients
1 tsp avocado oil
2 stalks lemongrass (use only the bottom third; finely minced)
5 cloves garlic, minced
3 shallots, minced
5 medallions galangal, minced
3 Thai bird’s eye chili, minced
1 ½ tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp soy sauce
3 tomatoes, cut into big chunks
2 king oyster mushrooms, halved and sliced into half moons
3-4 wild Iime leaves
1 tsp lime juice
6 cups vegetable/chicken stock
1 ½ cup coconut milk
1 bunch enoki mushrooms
Optional: coconut sugar
Optional toppings: fried shallots, cilantro, scallions
Directions
Heat and oil a large pot. Add in lemongrass, garlic, shallots, galangal, and chilies. Stir well until fragrant. Pour in fish sauce and soy sauce. Stir well.
Add tomatoes, lime leaves, and chicken stock. Cover pot and bring to boil for 5 minutes. Add lime juice, reduce heat, and simmer for 7 minutes.
Pour in coconut milk and adjust taste with fish sauce and/or chilies to your liking. If you find that the soup base is too sour, you may add in some coconut sugar 1 teaspoon at a time to adjust taste. Add in enoki mushrooms and simmer until mushrooms are cooked (about 2 minutes).
Remove from heat and serve on top of boiled rice noodles with optional toppings.
